The Other Path
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Wonder Girl sometimes wondered what she would be like if other, different choice had been made in her past. Then she met someone that looked just like her...
1. Old DCU

A young blonde teen appeared next to the Statue of Liberty with a loud pop, suddenly feeling something was very, very wrong. The sun was sparkling across the bay and out into the Atlantic Ocean as crowds looked over at the new arrival.

"Look, mom! A superhero!" a young child exclaimed.

Her slightly older brother looked bored, then suddenly surprised. "She's right! That's Wonder Girl!"

"Um, what?" the blonde Scion asked in surprise. "I think you have me confused with someone else."

A crowd was starting to form around her on the steps that led up to the main entrance.

"You look just like her, just with a different hair cut," a young girl exclaimed. "Are you sure you don't have amnesia or something? You super-heroes are always getting hurt and stuff."

"No, my memory is intact. This is rather odd, I have to say." Her brows furrowed as she looked around. Such public displays were actually quite odd.

"What's your name then?" a young girl demanded. She had a balloon in her hand and was wearing a cute blue sundress with a white shirt with a strange 'W' on it.

The Scion crouched down to meet her eye to eye. "I'm Sheila. What's your name?"

"Georgina. What are you doing here, Wonder Girl," the girl asked aggressively, still sure this was her favorite Teen Titan.

"I was actually trying to get to New York City, but it's the wrong time of day and this isn't my Statue of Liberty. It's been repaired an awful lot of times," she said, looking up at the iconic figure. The green-toned copper was showing dozens of repairs.

"Yeah, for some reasons the super villains always like to break it and Superman or the Justice League have to fix it right back up!" another boy called out. His toothy grin showcased a missing tooth.

"So, I take it you have a lot of superheroes?" Sheila asked curiously. That meant she was either in some sort of illusion or was very far off the beaten path.

"Yeah, like me," a bossy voice said from above.

Sheila looked up and showed her quite evident surprise. "My, we really do look alike, don't we?" Other than Sheila's shorter hair, they were nearly identical. The other girl was wearing a red and gold top and tight red jeans. On each arm was adorned some sort of simple silver bracer with a red star.

"I am not taking any crap from a clone," Wonder Girl pronounced as the normal people in the crowd started dispersing quickly. Very quickly indeed. "I'll sort this out back at the Embassy." With that, she threw a devastating punch.

That Sheila just bent slightly sideways to avoid. "I'm sorry, have I done something wrong?" she asked. This must be pretty common, as the people had backed well away.

"I'm not going to fall for any of you tricks. All I want to know if who sent you so I can stop this silly plan," her attacker called out loudly, but losing a bit of her bluster.

"Um, no one sent me. I'm not even sure how I ended up in super-heroville," Sheila said conversationally. "So, flight and superstrength?"

"Yes." Wonder Girl centered herself better, then lashed out with a punishing snap-kick that turned into a whirlwind of punches that the infuriating girl in front of her kept dancing between.

"Mythical basis for your powers?" Sheila asked hopefully.

"Yes, I was given my powers by Zeus himself," Wonder Girl said cautiously.

"You aren't a Scion of a God or Goddess?" Sheila looked a bit confused at that. "But I feel the divine spark within you."

"Scion?" Wonder Girl now lashed out with a cunning set of punches followed by what should have been a crushing knee to her opponents stomach. Her clone had to block the knee, sending her staggering backwards in a skid.

"You know, the mortal children of the gods like Hercules?" Sheila rubbed her arms, as that had stung a bit.

"Oh, so this is the trick, trying to convince me that some god is my father?" Wonder Girl asked derisively.

"I'm not the one picking a fight, thanks. Strange, I've been able to sense other Scions for a while now and it's never failed me," Sheila replied. "Who's your friend?"

"Friend?" Wonder Girl looked around to see Wonder Woman approaching through the air. "The best way to describe her... is that she's my mentor."

"Wonder Girl, would you mind explaining why you are attacking this girl?" the Amazon asked as she hove to a halt in the air. Her wore a very colorful outfit of red, white, blue and gold. She did have the same silver bracers and a silver tiara with a red star on it.

"Evil clone." There was more than a little bit of 'I'm busted' tone to her voice.

"Strange, she hasn't tried to hit you once." Her tone was quite reproving as she stared down the younger super-heroine.

Wonder Girl winced at that. "She's just trying to confuse me. She even says that I'm a Scion of a God. There's no way that could be true..." Cassie saw the shock on Diana's face at that, "...is there?" she asked finally.

"I am afraid she is correct. How she knew that secret, I don't know." Wonder Woman landed lightly to the side, watching Wonder Girl back down slightly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Cassie asked hotly.

"I gave my word to keep it secret. And I don't believe your mother wanted you to know," Diana said softly.

"And a vow of honor is a very important thing to you, I see. Perhaps we could start over here. I'm Sheila."

"I am Diana, Princess of Thymescria and known to the world as Wonder Woman," the princess said in reply. "You do look remarkably like Wonder Girl."

"That's why I said the whole evil clone thing," Cassie groused.

"I'd prefer dimensional counter-part." Sheila pulled out strange, glowing rock that had been carved into the form of a man with out stretched arms. The green rock sparkled under the light.

"Great Hera! Kryptonite?" Wonder Woman exclaimed, looking worried.

"I take it you recognize the material, but not the statue? Odd, I would have thought it being a relic would be more important than the mundane rock, even if it is oddly radioactive." Sheila raised an eyebrow at Wonder Woman. "It just allows me to access powers of the sky."

"You mean, with that little statue you can make a storm?" Wonder Girl asked with more than a little skepticism. Of course given it was made of kryptonite that was more likely to give her cancer instead be of be helpful.

"Flight, too. Though I haven't really had the chance to start learning any of them. I can sometimes float if I need to." They both looked confused at Sheila's explanation. "Consider them to be godly training-wheels. I rarely need my relic of healing."

Cassie started to laugh hysterically. "Godly training wheels? I can't wait to ask Athena about them."

Sheila raised an eyebrow at that. "Weren't you gifted with relics to teach you how to tap your innate godly spark?" Sheila asked in confusion.

"Um, no. Zeus just granted me all of my powers. Just like how Wonder Woman is empowered by the strength of Demeter, the power of Hera and the wisdom of Athena." Cassie shrugged.

"But she's not a Scion like you and I. Haven't you explored your own powers?" Sheila asked sounding completely shocked at such a thing happening.

"While that is a good question, it does not answer the problem of the Kryptonite statuette," Diana said, returning the conversation to what she thought was the important point.

"Why is Kryptonite a problem?" Sheila asked curiously.

"The low level radioactivity isn't healthy-" Wonder Woman started to say.

"But no bother to someone of my supernatural health," Sheila countered.

"It's lethally deadly to a fellow hero," Wonder Girl finally yelled out angrily."As in wave that in his face and he might die deadly!"

"That's bad." Sheila seemed to be thinking quickly. "And with you not knowing me, you can not just trust me to say that _'I will not use it against him_' will you?"

"How about we discuss this over tea?" Wonder Woman finally asked.

* * *

><p>"I'm still not sure how I got dragged into this," Sheila said just a day later as Cassie flew through the air across the country with her in her arms. The sweep of San Francisco laid out below them as they flashed through the air.<p>

"You wanted to learn more about me. This is part of me," Cassie said, pointing to the huge 'T' up ahead of them as she landed them on the island at the base of the tower. "And it's Friday, so time for the Teen Titans to hang out for the weekend."

"But only on the weekends because you are all still in school?" Sheila asked, just before a blur appeared. "My, that was fast. He was just a streak to me."

"Kid Flash is just that fast. It's his primary power. Just like strength and flight are my primary powers," Wonder Girl explained with a shrug.

"HeydidIseetwoofyou? Wow, there are two of you!" Kid Flash said as he zipped back out the door and down the stairs that led up to the T-shaped building. "Is she like your evil clone or something?"

"No." Sheila glared at him for that. That was becoming extremely annoying even faster then Kid Flash.

"What'd I say?" Kid Flash asked, putting his hands up defensively.

"Nothing I haven't said already. So what is your primary power?" Cassie asked with a sigh.

"Intelligence and excellence," Sheila replied.

"So do you remember everything you read, too?" Bart asked sounding happy someone else had a power like that.

"And then some. It'll be nice to race someone faster than me. I'll finally be able to really push myself." She gave him a grin.

"You want to be the fastest girl alive?" Kid Flash asked curiously.

"No, I just want to be the best at what I can be in everything." That was when she felt someone walk into the room behind her. "Hello?"

Robin seemed put off by her spotting him. "So this is your dimensional alternate?"

"How'd you do that?" Kid Flash blurted out in shock. "He's always sneaking up on me!"

"Ancient Greek Secret!" the dimensional doppelganger said with a wide grin.

"That's not fair!"

"Yes, Robin, this is Sheila. We think she might be me from another dimension." Wonder Girl flopped onto a couch in the 'living' room. "Is Raven around?"

"She's up in her room. I take it you have plans?" Robin said coolly.

"A little wardrobe work. Come on, Sheila. I'll introduce you." Cassie led her duplicate upstairs to a room decorated plainly, the homey scent of nagchampa and lava lamps being the only thing that stood out.

In the center of the bed sat a pale girl with very long black hair in a lotus position. She had long, black robes covering her body. And Sheila felt something unique about this 'Raven'.

Sheila blinked in surprise. "Another Scion of a divinity?"

"Yes, though I do not speak of him." Raven looked at the two girls. "You really are identical."

"With some startling difference below the surface. Though, sadly, we seem to both be of the same heroic bent," Sheila said lightly with a grin.

"I still say you're my evil twin," Cassie replied with a pout.

"I steal the cookies, you know. Totally, heinously evil." Sheila stuck her tongue out at Wonder Girl.

"Let's me show you what I bought," Cassie said, dropping the shopping bag she had been carrying around. "I think this will look good on you." She held up a red dress with small shoulder straps.

One change of clothing and Raven was looking much brighter dressed than she normally went.

"She looks a bit uncomfortable there," Sheila noted calmly.

Cassie nodded slowly. "Yeah."

"Do I have to show so much skin?" Raven asked worriedly.

"Not as much, but you will stick out a bit if you wear clothing that covers you quite as thoroughly as your full robes and cloak," Sheila said.

That was when the green-skinned Animal Boy pushed open the not-quite-closed door. "Hey guys!" He stopped when he saw the normally modest dressed Raven in the slinky red dress, looking a bit shocked.

"Out! Get out of my room!" Raven exclaimed as her black soul-self materialized.

Garth was deposited outside the door and it was slammed in his face.

"Too much skin, I guess. How about we try something else," Sheila said seriously. "We'll get you acclimatized to showing a _little more _skin slowly."

"Probably for the best," Cassie said with a sigh. And to think it was a guy who worked with Starfire for years that reacted that way. Wonder Girl didn't even want to imagine how any else would have reacted to that.

* * *

><p>The Electrocutioner smirked at the green and purple power suit as it bounced painfully off the building rooftop. "I'll give you ten seconds to get your friend out of there before I kill you both."<p>

The two-bit hoods nodded vigorously as the one stuck inside the suit tried to get out.

That was when the Teen Titans dropped onto the roof with Cyborg leading the way. He pointed his sonic cannon at the masked villain. "Titans... Together!"

Sheila stayed in the back as the team started to deal with the thug (one punch) the thug in battlesuit (nearly getting Animal Boy shot with a missile) and Electrocutioner (who was handily avoiding being pasted by Cyborg and Wonder Girl.)

"Hey! I'm not in control here! This suit's out of control!" the thug in the Lex Luthor battle armor shouted.

"Off!" Sheila commanded, blasting through all of its cipher-protected controls to deactivate the battle suit with her innate ability to communicate with electronics.

"Wowthat'scool. You never said you could just turn off tech stuff," Kid Flash said with a huge grin.

"It's part of that 'really smart' thing power," Sheila replied with a happy grin. "I'm good with computers and codes."

"I'll have to get your help to track down the badguys through cyberspace," Robin said with a tight grin as he dashed into an opening when Cyborg was thrown back and Wonder Girl had to duck to avoid blasts of electricity.

Sheila tapped her hand to the flying Cyborg on his back; then set him down with an amazing display of dexterity with just that one hand. "All good?" she asked.

"Um, neat trick. I would have been fine," the cyber hero exclaimed. Behind them, two hands reached through a warp to yank the Luthor Corporation battlesuit through space and time as Cyborg steadied himself.

"Damn." Even being superfast wouldn't help while she was tied up doing something else. Then she winced as she heard Robin start losing it as he went ballistic after Electrocutioner made a comment about his father being cold and dead in the grave. The sounds of rapid hits from his staff were brutal in her ears.

Everyone else arrived just in time for the Boy Wonder to start breaking down over the beaten form of the villain.

"Robin, you don't need to hide it. Not here with us," Raven said slowly.

"My father died last week," the young man said, tears cascading down his mask.

"Oh my god," Wonder Girl said in shock.

"Tim?" Kid Flash asked in a soft and quiet voice.

Beast Boy finally asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

He nodded. "I think I need to."

Wonder Girl enfolded him in a caring hug while his friends gathered around him. Superboy's strong hand on his shoulder was another balm on his soul.

Sheila stood in the back by Cyborg, letting _his_ friends comfort him as best they could. She felt terribly awkward and intruding right then.

* * *

><p>The Teen Titans were mostly dog-piling Cyborg in a disorganized manner outside in the sun the next week. So when the arrow came out of nowhere to slam into Cyborg to freeze him solid, it was quite a surprise for nearly everyone.<p>

"Hey, Titans," the red and yellow figure a bow said where she was crouched over a concrete marker. "Everyone cool?"

"Oh, I guess Cyborg didn't see her coming up," Sheila said, rapping the ice carefully to break it loose. Her comment defused Superboy from going off half cocked.

Robin raised an eyebrow at that. "You did?"

"Yes, I did. And Kid Flash is making bunny ears behind me. Now devil horns. Are you done yet?" Sheila asked, ignoring Kid Flash's surprise behind her.

"Um, I get the feeling I didn't help out the situation. Cyborg had gone nuts?" Speedy asked as she dropped her hood behind her head.

"No, just a training exercise. Looks like he gets to eat a little crow." Wonder Girl just shrugged and smiled at Speedy.

Speedy left with the recovered Cyborg just a few minutes later. So that left everyone else to settle in until the emergency call came in. Sheila watched the man, Dr. Light, on the huge control screen of the main communication room.

"He has murder in his eye," Sheila said seriously, replaying the conversation in her head over and over. "That is _not_ the same man that you have earlier video recordings. He is much more alert and aware."

"It's like, Dr. Light. He's a pushover," Beast Boy countered."A troop of boy scouts kicked his butt once."

"I'm going to get my armor," she replied.

"You finally finished your armor? Did you come up with a name?" Cassie asked eagerly even as Superboy snickered.

"Yes. It's Sheila."

The many and varied super groups all called in to let them know that if the Titans needed them, they would all be ready to head in just a moment.

Sheila reappeared in he breastplate and vambraces with a light protection on her head. It did not impede any of her senses except possible touch.

* * *

><p>The Teen Titans had shown up at the museum on schedule, Beast Boy still certain that Dr. Light was still just a pushover. He appeared right behind Wonder Girl, Raven and Sheila; that earned him a kick in the gut from Sheila.<p>

"He can turn nearly invisible," she called out, spinning into another kick then two flashing punches.

"Which didn't seem to bother you in the slightest," Dr. Light said, honestly curious. "Two Wonder Girls?"

"She's not. I'm Wonder Girl," Cassie exclaimed angrily, slamming a double punch into his stomach which he took with alarmingly ease, having almost ignored Sheila's attacks almost entirely.

"And who is she?" the arch-villain asked curiously.

"Sheila," the Scion replied simply.

With a casual wave of power, he blasted at Wonder Girl, Superboy and Sheila. All three were sent tumbling as Cyborg slammed into the villain.

"He hits like a Mac Truck, doesn't he," Sheila said with a groan.

"Yeah," Superboy exclaimed. "Ouch."

"Time for some good old fashioned magic," the Scion said as she helped Cassie to her feet. "How about a little bit of bolstering of your health." She then reached over and touched Superboy, granting him the same ability.

"How about you?" Cassie asked.

"Can't heal myself that way. I'll be fine. That's why I'm wearing the armor." She led the three of them back into the brawl after Beast Boy and Speedy were casually taken out.

Wonder Girl tried her new Lasso, only to find that the lightning was ripped from it. Then Dr. Light blasted into Superboy's stomach, causing him to release his breath explosively. The evil doctor then ripped the heat vision from Superboy's eyes.

"You don't have any special light, do you?" Dr. Light asked as he tried to blast at Sheila and Robin.

"Super zap powers of light? Nope," Sheila replied even as she threw a dagger as Robin threw his own 'R' blades and Speedy shot at him with an arrow.

"Children shouldn't play with blades," Dr. Light said with a chuckle. "But you were all taught to play with fire and cut yourself on the altar of your worship of false idols." His blasts sent them scattering.

His next fight, with Raven, was epic in scope as her darkness tried to devour his hatred and light. He then absorbed all light in the area to release it with a massive burst that seemingly knocked out everyone.

Dr. Light then grabbed Speedy's ankle and dragged her inside the museum where Green Arrow was tied up. His haranguing of Green Arrow was interrupted as Sheila and Wonder Girl smashed into the room quite loudly.

"Sorry, can't let the brand new teammate die on her first mission," Sheila explained as she planted both feet in Dr. Light's face as Wonder Girl grabbed the comatose Speedy from the loosened grip.

"It's a girl's night out, Sis," a brunette said at the doorway with a British accent, looking quite ordinary with her sister in t-shirts and jeans.

"That it does. Guess we better look to help them," the blonde said.

"Hawk!"

"Dove!"

The two instantly transformed into the named superheroines and jumped into the mass melee with Dr. Light.

"More children who seek to die here today. How droll," the massively powerful villain said as he shrugged off the claws of Hawk easily.

"How are you doing Sheila? I'm still seeing spots," Wonder Girl asked as she threw a punch at Dr. Light.

"Blind, actually. Have been since that big blast. I'll get by. It's only one of my senses," Sheila replied as she sent another dagger at Dr. Light that he ducked.

"So how are you fighting him so well?" Dove asked as she swooped in and swiped at Dr. Light.

"Spacial awareness." Sheila ducked another blast, cartwheeling away and bounced off three pillars.

"I just slash things," Hawk said helpfully as she clawed at Dr. Light. "What sort of name is Sheila? Have we actually run out of heroic names?"

"Or she doesn't feel she needs a 'super-name' at all," Dove replied as she dodged several blasts.

"I haven't convinced her to take one yet," Wonder Girl said just before she got a face full of white energy that sent her rocketing back outside.

"Do you think you can ignore me while you prattle on?" Dr. Light exclaimed angrily.

"Did we hurt the big, bad villain's ego?" Sheila asked lightly.

Reigning in his temper, he continued his rant. "No, I am above that. And you, the children, will reap what the Justice League has sown."

"You realize that I have no connection to the Justice League, right? I barely have a tenuous link to Wonder Girl," Sheila replied while she cartwheeled across the ground to avoid more blasts.

"I thought you looked similar to her under that helmet," Dove noted as she dodged behind several pillars while Dr. Light blasted at her.

"Yes, let's remove that impediment," the master of light said, shooting a highly accurate laser that cut the quasi-helmet.

"You can't hit me nine out of ten times to hurt me, but you can remove my helmet with one blast?" Sheila complained as she skidded to a halt.

"You look exactly like Wonder Girl. What sort of trick is this?" Dr. Light demanded.

"The type that allows us to rescue the hostage?" she quipped.

Dr. Light looked over his shoulder to see that Green Arrow was indeed gone, the dagger that he had dodged from Sheila embedded in the statue of Abraham Lincoln that his hostage had been tied to. He turned back to Sheila, energy leaking from his eyes and mouth. "You will be the first to pay," he said coldly.

He sent out a shock wave along the ground to force her to jump. Once she was airborne, he flew towards her in a blur of white energy.

"You can't fly, can you?" Dr. Light said nastily, just before he threw her at the whirling rotors of the new helicopter flying through the night. "Agggh!" he cried out, holding the arm from where she had jabbed a pressure point during the throw.

"No!" Dove shouted, trying to fly faster.

With an impossible display of dexterity, Sheila spun around and started running on the edge of the propeller for a second before she leaped to the ground.

"Heh. I woulda just smashed into it," Hawk said as she bounded out of the smashed museum and onto its roof.

"Hey, the gang's all here," Sheila said as she landed in front of an enlarged group of Titans.

"She looks like Wonder Girl," a surprised Duella Dent gasped.

"Focus on the _badguy,_ people!" Sheila exclaimed.

"It looks like you're all here." Dr. Light's mouth twisted in a dry smile. "You know you want to say it." He was floating in front of the dozens of superheroes as if they were nothing.

Nightwing was quite stoically irritated, but his lead in on the clarion call of the Titans was impassioned. "TITANS... TOGETHER!"

Nightwing, Troia, Flash and Cyborg led the charge, but the battle still seemed even. Dr. Light seemed to shrug off massive attacks, with only unexpected attacks even slightly harming him it seemed.

"He's manipulating more than just light. And he's absorbing things across the electromagnetic spectrum. I think he's making photon particle shields. Solid light," Sheila as she fired at him from cover with a pistol.

Robin looked over at that. "So you are saying we can't win?"

"No, but we need to take away his power source. And all we are doing is throwing more power _at_ him." Sheila seemed like she was thinking. Then she stood up and sidled over to Raven who was helping a wounded Hawk who had just gotten burned. "I'm sorry, Raven, but there's no time to explain."

"What?" the mainstay Titan asked, just before Sheila's fingertip touched her Chakra Stone.

"It's a Relic," Sheila said, as if that explained everything as a mishappen shadowy form exploded into existence above her, stabilizing as a Dark Soul.

"Raven! Are you all right?" Robin asked as he ran over.

"Yes. I'm not injured at all," the empath said in surprise.

"But she just took your Soul Self, didn't she?" the young Boy Wonder asked.

"No, she just used my Chakra to unleash her own."

Sheila had already charged into melee, enveloping Dr. Light in the inky blackness of the dark shadow soul. "You can't hit me!" she taunted as she fired the pistol at him while dodging his blasts that shot out from within the murky depths.

She let just enough light through to let him see where she was. And he took the bait.

"You duplicated Raven's powers of darkness? She was the mistress of her powers and you think you can do better?" Dr. Light sneered, blasting out three times at her, scorching off a vambrace from the brilliant white energy. "You can't even use her power to absorb my light!"

"It's working enough, no?" she retorted, just as Wonder Girl and Superboy slammed back into the melee.

Speedy shot an arrow through the darkness, stabbing him through the arm.

Wonder Girl's next punched loosened a tooth, much to both of their surprises.

"What have you done?" Dr. Light snarled, blasting the teen Amazon out with a beam of white destruction.

"Punched you a lot?" Superboy quipped as he hit Dr. Light in the stomach hard.

"Perfect!" Cyborg said as he waded back in past the form of Superboy that was being blasted away. "Solar Shield on!" His silvery surface turned black. "You don't even know why you are losing, do you?"

"What are you talking about?" Dr. Light shouted back. He would show this punk mechanical man that he was something to fear. He reached out his hand to absorb the light within the area... and received barely a trickle. "What? I'm being blocked?"

"Sheila put up a void of energy _around_ you, sucker. So you can't keep absorbing energy," Cyborg said nastily, just as his metal fists started to hammer home. The next six punches laid out the master of light, leaving him unconscious in a bloody heap.

"Oh, good." Sheila dropped to one knee. She closed her eyes hard, willing the darkness back within her one agonizing moment after another. "Remind me _not_ to do that without my own Relic. That almost got away from me."

"I don't get it," Wonder Girl said as she landed back on the ground.

"Remember what I said about mystic training wheels? There are Relics of mystic import that allow you to channel pure fundamental forces in a variety of ways. I used Raven's chakra stone to call out my Dark Soul self." Sheila shrugged as she stood back up.

Wonder Girl looked off for a second as different Titans moved. "Could I learn them?"

"Sure. Let's start with a simple one." Sheila seemingly opened a glowing portal into air and pulled out a stethoscope. "Try to use this to feel how badly injured Superboy is here. Just look at him and you will understand how hurt he is."

Cassie stared at the subtly ornate medical device in her hand for a long second. Then she looked over at her boyfriend, eyes widening. "Um, nothing other than a few fast fading bruises. Wow, you heal pretty fast, SB."

Speedy looked aghast at that, panic in her eyes. "You can do that to anyone you look at, Sheila?"

"I could, but that would be pretty invasive. Now if someone _asked_ me to check or while they were hurt during a battle, that would be different." Sheila glanced over to see where Batman and a Batgirl were taking charge of Dr. Light. "So, would you like to borrow that? It's a little dangerous to use someone else's Relic, but for a benign power like this, you should be okay."

"I... Yes." Cassie looked conflicted for a moment. "Sheila, would you like to come to my home this week? I want to ask my mother some questions. And I think you may need to be there."

Robin was in Nightwing's shadow as they walked over, the Bat-Jet flying off into the night.

"That was your mentor?" Sheila asked curiously.

"Right. And the new Batgirl. She doesn't talk much," Robin said noncommittally.

She leaned a little closer. "Is he training her to adjust to the loss of her eye like he had to?"

Robin looked at her for a second. "Why-?" Then he stopped and thought a second. "They were both missing an eye under their masks?" he suddenly asked loudly, shock on his face.

"Um, yes?" Sheila said, looking confused.

Robin suddenly spun to the ex-Boy Wonder. "Nightwing, that wasn't Batman. That was Deathstroke and Ravager! We just turned Dr. Light loose!"

"Oh, crap," Sheila, Cassie and Conner all said.

"What?" Nightwing demanded as he trotted over.

"That wasn't Batman. Sheila could tell that _they_ were each missing an eye," Robin explained.

"Does anyone still see that Bat-Jet?" Nightwing suddenly called out to the crowd of Teen Titans.

Everyone finally reported in that they could not.

"They have some really good stealth tech. I'm not seeing anything in the sky," Sheila said as she looked off into the sky from a nearby building.

Most of the current crew was giving her an odd look. Robin finally broke the silence. "So, exactly how good are your senses, Sheila?"

"Ah, I suppose you are wondering if I'm just looking through your masks?" A couple of Titans nodded. "Not really, but visual sight is such a small part part of my senses. I could probably pick you out of a crowd at night in the rain in your civvies. It would be like you guys recognizing someone by the sound of their voice."

Beast Boy whistled appreciatively. "I can change into some animals with some unusual senses, but you can do it all the time?"

"The sky is alight with cosmic energy, while the Earth below me hums with subsonic energy. It's really an amazing sight and I have no way to show everyone what it looks like," she replied with a sad smile.

Later that night, when many secrets were unveiled such as Speedy's testing positive for HIV, Raven's continual problems with her 'eating emotions' or Wonder Girl's brush with Ares. Both Superboy and Sheila still held their peace.

Some thing are not that easy to come out.

* * *

><p>"So, mom, why won't you talk about my father?" Cassie was sitting across the table her mother, while Sheila was sitting along the edge, wincing as she finished taking a sip of a soda.<p>

Her mother's lips turned down in a frown. "I don't want to talk about that in front of a stranger."

The sun was shining through the windows on the late Sunday afternoon and the house looked incredibly pastoral and _normal_.

"Actually, she's the reason we are sitting her having a talk. Sheila says that I'm that daughter of a god. So I think that falls under 'important things that should not be kept from your daughter'." Cassie looked very, very determined as she did the teenager slump in her seat across from her mother.

"As far as I can tell, Mrs. Sandsmark, I'm a dimensional analog of your daughter. And I know I'm a Scion. And you, being her mother, confuses me a lot," Sheila said to cut off the argument.

"I told him not to tell you," her mother said. "I didn't want him making you think you were a heroine."

"Who is he?" Cassie demanded.

"It was Zeus. He didn't call himself that when we met, of course. I was a young and on a trip to California and he swept me off my feet. And when you were born..." Mrs. Sandsmark said with a fond tone.

"Zeus..." Sheila wilted under the knowledge.

"You knew that you were the daughter of a god already. So why are you upset?" the longer-haired girl asked angrily.

"Because I was the daughter of a goddess... that was a virgin. So I didn't _know_ for sure. She never explained it. And it seems like it was just an adoption of an unwanted girl to keep Zeus from getting in trouble."

"What did you think, that she just created you from magic?" Mrs. Sandsmark asked curiously.

"Immaculate conception, being formed from clay like Diana was or maybe even a clone. But I'm just the girl that doesn't even have a real mother." Tears started leak from her eyes. "I'm just... I don't know anymore. I'm fake."

It was several minutes later that Sheila realized that she was hugging Cassie desperately. With a last sob, she tried to pull herself together. Mrs. Sandsmark was patting her on the back.

"There there, dear. Why don't you tell us a little bit about you so we can understand?" The archaeologist and curator was putting her best sympathetic voice.

"From my earliest memories, I was always pushed to excel. Scholastically and athletically. I thought it was normal to be competing with older girls and to learn three languages at a time. My foster parents always told me that I was adopted, but they showed me they cared when I succeeded or excelled in school, unlike my step-brother. By the time I was eleven, I was starting high school courses."

"You were in high school at eleven?" Cassie blurted out in surprise. She had problems with her triginometry _now._

"Yeah. I graduated when I turned thirteen and was starting my medical doctorate program when I was told that I was the daughter of Athena. And that the world needed heroes again, like my uncle Hercules. Now I don't know that I know _anything._" She looked despondent. "So I've been fighting the good fight and I find out that my life is a lie."

"But the biggest truth is that you are yourself. And from what Cassie says, that's an amazing young woman."

"Let's get you fixed up. I'll have to remember that crying makes me look horrible," Cassie said seriously.

That got Sheila to almost smile. "Thanks. You didn't have to anything. I'm not really you-"

"-but I could have been you if things had been a little different," Cassie countered.

Mrs. Sandsmark made Cassie's favorite blueberry pancakes, which Sheila decided that she really liked too.

* * *

><p>It was the weekend again and the Titan's Tower was filled with the Titans as Robin started to gather people. Sheila heard the shriek from Superboy's room, transmitting an ultrasonic coded message.<p>

"Computer, external lockdown. Firewalls at Ragnarok levels." Sheila was up and moving, heading to where everyone was gathering. "Cyborg, I think Superboy was just compromised by some sort of triggered hypnotic signal."

"All Titan's together," the black man ordered. "Where's Superboy?"

"He's shaving off all of his hair with his eyes, burning it off with his heat vision," she said, looking through the wall. "It's symbolic of something?"

"Bald? Damn, it might be Luthor," Cyborg said as he tromped along down the corridor towards Superboy's room.

"What's going on?" Robin asked as he, Wonder Girl and Beast Boy arrived. He had been gathering everyone like Superboy had asked.

"Superboy just got himself mindcontrolled," Sheila explained.

"By Luthor, by the looks of it," Cyborg said grimly.

That was when Superboy stepped out of his private room, a ragged 'L' ripped through his black Superman T-Shirt. His eyes were flaring with his heat vision so hot that it was scorching his eyes. "Errrrrgh," he said roughly.

"Hit him hard!" Cyborg ordered as he blasted Superboy with a major sonic cannon in one arm.

Superboy took the blast like it was nothing, retaliating with his heat vision to melt Cyborg cannon. Sheila dashed forward in a burst of super-speed, kicking him three times.

It was when her foot landed on the ground to push off on her next attack that things went bad for her. Superboy smiled as he used his tactile telekinesis to root her, then nearly roasted her face with heat vision. It shocked the young Scion since Conner had stopped using those powers in favor of his more main stream Kryptonian ones.

"Foot's stuck!" she exclaimed trying to dodge by bending at the waist.

"Sheila!" Cassie shouted, just as Superboy smashed his foot down on her trapped ankle to snap it like a twig.

With a shriek of pain, Sheila collapsed on the broken limb.

Wonder Girl's punched thundered home hard enough to shatter windows from the concussion and rocketed her boyfriend outside. "Conner, please stop it." Tears were streaming down Cassie's cheeks as she flew after Superboy as he got back to his feet.

The mind-controlled metahuman blurred back towards her to trade blows, pushing her further and further into the shattered ground below her. His last punch spun her around three times and through a tree.

"Stop this, Superboy!" Raven demanded as her soul-self cloak spread out.

He just responded by slamming his fist into his palm with supersonic force, stunning her quickly before his next backhand knocked her out cold. His burning eyes betrayed no remorse over his actions.

Then Kid Flash, Beast Boy and Robin all triple-teamed him.

"Mean green machine, coming through!" Beast Boy's rhinoceros form just barely knocked Superboy off his feet. The fastest kid alive tried to super-speed his mind-controlled friend into a solid rock wall.

Superboy just flew off the ground and lashed out with a burst of heat-vision to blast him and Beast Boy unconscious even as Robin's bo staff did nothing other than catch his attention.

"You're better than this, Superboy! You can fight this," Robin entreated as his staff shattered trying to block a punch.

Superboy's only response was to punch Robin again. Only his quick attempt to roll with the punch let him off with a shattered shoulder.

Looking over the remains of the Titan Tower, Superboy flew off to meet with his 'father' Lex Luthor. The burning remains of his home away from home.

* * *

><p>"That was a serious case of getting our ass kicked," Sheila noted as she healed Raven ten minutes later.<p>

"Thank you. It is very nice to have someone else that can remove our injuries," the raven-haired girl said softly. "Why have you not used this extensively before?"

"I don't want to really step on your toes and I can't use my version on myself," Sheila replied with a grimace. "I had to set my leg and splint it manually, for instance. That really, really hurt."

"You haven't healed that?" Robin asked, rubbing his aching shoulder. The break from Superboy's punch was almost gone.

Sheila's gasp of surprise startled everyone as Cassie's let go of her healed leg. "Did I do that right?" she asked.

"You did that just perfectly," the Scion replied with a smile.

Cyborg looked up from where he was attaching a replacement arm, narrowing his one eye. Beast Boy whistled while Bart zipped over to look at the newly healed limb as Sheila removed her splints.

"That could be very useful," Raven said lightly.

"We all have abilities that are needed." Sheila was looking at Raven, being as earnest as possible so that the empath could feel it.

She responded with a small smile. "Are we ready to go to the Outsider's base?"

Robin had contacted Nightwing just a few minutes ago, finding out that they had their own problems that _may_ be related. So it had been decided that everyone should regroup.

At Cyborg's nod, she let her soul-self sweep all of the Titans through the darkness to appear a moment later in a worse-for-wear high tech base.

Shift looked up when he saw them appear. "Nightwing and Arsenal said you'd be here. Come on." He looked pretty bitter and upset at this point as he led them to the main control room.

Grace Choi looked up, smirking. "Kiddie Brigade made it."

Jade rolled her eyes. "So everyone is up to speed? It looks like the android known as Indigo was actually Brainiac 8, a megalomaniac conqueror from the future and has teamed up with Lex Luthor."

"Who brainwashed Superboy. So we need to take both of them down, free Superboy and stop whatever they are planning," Robin said forcefully.

"You guys going to be able to take down your friend?" Arsenal asked seriously.

"Are you going to be able to take down Brainiac?" Victor countered, his red electronic eye staring down at the 'living weapon.' He then looked over at Shift specifically. "I heard that you and Indigo hooked up."

"You bet, tin-britches," Roy said with a smirk over the horrified look from Shift that bespoke the pain the elemental man felt. "But we need to get out of here. This place is probably compromised ten ways to Sunday. Head to your place?"

"Are you strong enough, Raven?" Cyborg asked seriously.

"I must be," she replied.

They had only reappeared outside the entrance to the Titans Tower when Cyborg and Sheila saw the incoming hordes of Supermen robots.

"Just one of these was a powerhouse! How are we going to handle dozens?" Beast Boy complained as everyone started to spread out.

The Teen Titans and the Outsiders had to privately admit that he had a point.

"Magic trick time!" Sheila called out, holding out her hand. "Off!" Nine Supermen robots turned off and slammed down to the ground inertly.

"Off!" she called out again as all the robots charged at her dodging form. Another eight robots turned off. Just seconds later, all of the robots were out.

"Smash them so they can't be reactivated!" Nightwing ordered. He tried to not roll his eyes as Grace headed over to the nearest Superman robot to smash its head while chortling gleefully.

* * *

><p>There were <em>two<em> Brainiacs, they found out. And their final battle was against Lex Luthor (in that green and purple battlesuit that they fought the other day and lost through the warp point), Superboy, Brainiac 8 and the original Brainiac with his huge battleship.

"Wonder Girl! Grace! Hit Superboy quick to keep him from taking out anyone!" Nightwing ordered. "Spread out!"

"I've got Brainiac 8!" Sheila shouted, charging to take on the advanced android as she charged towards the water's edge of the island.

Arsenal just raised an eyebrow at that. "Gutsy kid. What's her super powers again? Shift, why don't you help her out."

Robin just smirked. "She's smart. And I'm sure you can remember that she controls computers." He headed over carefully to help out Superboy by running interference against Lex Luthor.

"You think you can take on me?" Brainiac 8 asked in derision. Her red, android eyes narrowed in thought as she blasted at the annoyingly fast girl in a armor.

"We'll have to see," Sheila said as she sent in cybernetic thought against the future android.

In the cyber-scape of her mind, Brainiac 8 just sneered haughtily. She surrounded the mental-construct of Sheila with five of herself all glowing with exotic looking energy shields. "You have no idea what you are getting into, trying to hack a Level-12 Intelligence." Her malicious smile faltered as Sheila actually grinned.

"I don't have to hold back!" as she split into eight separate thought-paths. "Let's see what a Demigoddess of Intellect and Excellence does against the super-advanced future intellect from outer space!"

Brainiac 8 actually blinked at that as she was suddenly slammed with a massive cyber attack that shattered several of her barriers. Out in the real world, they both continued to battle, though Brainiac 8's blasts seemed a lot less accurate, giving Sheila just enough of an edge to keep avoiding them.

Arsenal looked surprised. "She's actually holding her own?"

Thunder just smirked. "Leaves us open to pile on the other three more easily. Come on Starfire, let's go show the other Brainiac what's what."

Back inside the cyberspace, things looked to have settled down to a stalemate. Brainiac 8 seemed to have recovered some of her arrogance. "So a Demigoddess? And people think I have a high opinion of myself," the green and purple advanced intelligence denigrated.

"Just being realistic. I'm not a Goddess and I'm more than just a beginning hero," Sheila explained each of her 'selves' sent out blistering attacks.

"Yet you should be able to overwhelm me easily, _Demigoddess_," Brainiac 8 said with a sneer. "You need help and you are out of your depth."

"Probably. What do you think, Indigo?" Sheila asked calmly under the electronic onslaught.

Brainiac 8 turned just in time for her naive alter-ego she had created to punch her in the jaw with binary fury from behind her. "Impossible! She was just a facade!" the Coulian exclaimed rubbing her electronic jaw.

Sheila had been rebuilding the false-android, reading her entire life in the process. She had then sworn, that very moment, that she would do everything she could to save Indigo if she could.

Two of the Sheilas grabbed one of the Brainiac's, pushing her into one of her sisters to force the two parts of the android to merge them forcefully.

"I can not lose! I am better than you!" Brainiac 8 screamed as Indigo and the multiple selves of the Scion continued to push the different, weakening parts together.

"Not true, you are just more evil. And that is never superior," Indigo said in a matter of the fact way.

Soon, the essence of the future cybernetic warlord was compressed to a data-point, being guarded by four of the Scion's selves. The other four had linked hands around Indigo.

"Am I going to be a real person now?" the construct asked.

"I am hoping so. It is the age old question, if you act and react like a real person, are you real? I am creating you from the template that Brainiac used, but you will be different. You will not be Brainiac 8 pretending to be Indigo, but something new with the essential makeup that was Indigo." Sheila continued concentrating, firming up the creation.

"Am I real now?" the new program asked again.

"The Pinocchio Problem. The fake boy that needs to be turned real. I'm sure I could clone you a living body. But does that really make you _real?_" Sheila asked herself. No, she decided internally. Indigo's new artificial intelligence was sentient, but needed that true spark.

The spark of a soul.

"Not yet. But if I have anything to say, you will be." In the cyberspace of neon beams and lights, the four Sheilas around Indigo closed their eyes, even as the physical Sheila out in the real world knelt down next to the comatose form of Brainiac 8. She laid her hand on the android.

"I invoke and beg for succor, Athena the Wise! Please come to this unworthy one and hear my plea," Sheila's voice called out in both worlds in ancient, Hellenic Greek.

In Olympus, Athena's gray eyes widened as someone summoned her. Someone was summoning her _correctly_. As she was going to be shortly asking Ares to do the same thing, she felt it best to respond to appear in the air next to Titan's Island.

The fight between the Titans, Outsiders and their enemies faltered for a moment as the goddess appeared in a burst of sunlight that blinded all for just a moment, arrayed as for war. Her spear was ready as she floated over the crashing surf in the shadow of the Titan's Tower. "Who so calls Athena to this battle?" her voice called out.

"I am Sheila and I beg of thee to accept my request with thine wisdom. I will pay thee a boon and a sacrifice to aid me in bestowing the most gracious of things on this form before me, so that a love may not die this day," the Scion called out.

"Say what?" Kid Flash asked, barely dodging Superboy for a second.

"What you ask is not something lightly given," Athena warned.

"She wishes to be real. And I am not quite powerful enough to grant her wish and create a life like this."

"I see." Athena had heard of this new girl, but did not truly _know_ her. And she was powerful in her own right. More powerful than she had expected. "You shalt sacrifice for this android?"

"Why should she and Superboy not be saved?" was the simple reply as the fights continued in the background.

Sheila tensed as Athena's spear tore into her stomach. Blood oozed out, flowing into the air while purifying in amazing manner, becoming all colors as it shown brighter and brighter. The Scion felt a huge rush of her personal power leaving her, to be dwarfed by the far greater power of the full goddess above her that infused her sacrifice.

The light compressed and then floated down into the form of Brainiac 8, opening her eyes. The android asked again, "Am I real?"

"You are, newly born. Welcome to this world of strife; let your strides and actions make it better for the future," Athena declared as she faded away.

"Ouch," Sheila said as she put her hand to her wound.

The male Brainiac on his skull fortress had been watching. "What did you do to my granddaughter? Speak, and your death will be swift," he called out from far above them on his damaged ship.

"I took the fake parts she had used and created a real Indigo from the echoes left," Sheila replied, hiding the shiver in her knees. "So I guess you could consider this Indigo to be your other, newly born granddaughter."

Shift enfolded Indigo in a crushing hug as he materialized from a purple mist of fumes. "Is it really you?" he asked.

"I think so," the android replied. "I remember trying to get to you, but Sheila is the one that gave me myself back."

"Where is Brainiac 8?" the present-time Brainiac demanded.

Indigo shaped part of herself into a sphere of crystals from her collarbone. "She is here, imprisoned by Sheila."

"Hey, chuckles? Remember me? Time for round two!" Thunder called out, just as Starfire dropped her from above to smash the titanic tyrant from the hull of his ship to smash into the ground.

"Back to the fight, people," Sheila said as she started to trot at an anemic pace, though it looked like a normal person's combat speed.

They were just in time to see Superboy start to rip Lex Luthor's battlesuit to shreds with his strength and tactile telekinesis. Sheila moved over to Cassie, helping her out from the crater. "Sheesh, who did you upset?" she asked. It looks like she had been bombed or blasted quite a bit.

"Luthor was mad that I was freeing Superboy from his mind-control," Wonder Girl said with a rueful and painful looking grin.

"Well, he seems to be doing a good job of dismantling Luthor anyways," Sheila was saying, just before Lex Luthor disappeared in a flash of light. "Teleportation?" She had been about to deactivate his battlesuit remotely.

Indigo, Starfire and Cyborg were attacking Brainiac's flying fortress. His scream of frustration was swallowed by the explosion as they finally hit something critical inside of it.

"Is that all of the badguys?" Kid Flash asked as he dropped of Beast Boy and Arsenal off from the blast zone of the Skull Ship.

Raven was giving Indigo an odd look as the android landed alongside of Shift. "You are different now. Your... soul feels different?" the empath asked.

"She has a soul?" Superboy said hollowly. His face twisted as his life seemed to crash down.

Raven could feel his anguish as Cassie hobbled over to her boyfriend, to hug him tight. "Superboy... Conner, so do you."

"But you... didn't tell me that earlier," the boy of steel said.

"I can feel your soul now. It is bright, even under all the pain you feel," the dark robed Titan said softly.

With a soft thud, Sheila collapsed to the ground unconscious, blood pooling from her spear wound.

* * *

><p>Sheila awoke later to beeps in a hospital room. A light started flashing, bringing a nurse.<p>

"Good morning, sleepy head. How are you feeling?" the young man asked in nurse's apron. He picked up a clipboard. "It looks like your abdominal laceration is finally starting to heal."

"I feel like I got stabbed with magic spear," she replied. "How long have I been out?"

"You been unconscious for about a week. For some reason, that wound has been resisting anything other than normal healing. Dr. Mimbwari will be with you shortly." The nurse wrote something down and then stepped out.

After a short talk her her doctor, she was allowed a few short visits from her friend.

"I had to put myself down as family. Which I guess is sort of accurate," Cassie explained. "You gave me a heart attack collapsing like that."

"Sorry. I didn't realize that I was so hurt. How's Conner?" Sheila asked.

"He's at his foster parent's home. He's still trying to sort out things," Wonder Girl explained as she fidgeted at the end of the bed.

Sheila looked over at Indigo. She was not sure what the android was doing there.

"Are you feeling better, mother?" she asked softly.

"Mother?" Sheila croaked out. Her eyes narrowed, then widened. "Um, fine, I guess. Try to not throw those sort of quick shocks at me while I'm in the hospital."

"Indigo," Cassie said while putting her palm on her forehead. "And don't you even start with that auntie thing."

"Right."

"So other than I have a larger family, everything has settled down?" Sheila asked Cassie.

"Sure, I was just worried about you. Everyone healed up fine, but your wound resisted any healing Raven or I could use." Wonder Girl looked confused.

"I entreated Athena to assist me in making Indigo real, in giving her a soul. And a sacrifice would not be much of a penalty if you could just heal it with magic." Sheila grimaced in pain as she tried to shrug. "I'll probably heal pretty quick now. Give me a week or so."

* * *

><p>Sheila was loafing in bed with a notebook early in the morning, when she looked up to see the TV news overtaken by Wonder Woman on the screen. She was entering a baseball diamond where the grim form of Ares and a winged monster were awaiting the dawn. Most everyone else in the United States could not understand it, but to Sheila the ancient Greek was one of her birth languages.<p>

"Medousa?" she said as she blanched. Why would they show a private duel like this? She suddenly started typing. After two minutes, while the bloody fight was going on, she realized that something supernatural was keeping that TV signal active. Someone _wanted _one of their deaths televised like this.

"So, the chances are that if Medousa wins, the camera will pan to her face. What is the chance of anyone being petrified through a television?" Sheila spent a long, agonizing minute thinking things over. "Let's be paranoid and assume that you can. Obviously just seeing her body isn't enough. It has to be the gaze or fairly close up of the face. Factoring in high definition television signals, let's hack the camera's to pixelate out her face whenever its larger than ten percent of the height." Her fingers nearly flew over the keyboard, leaving Medousa's face blocked and a message on the bottom of the screen.

Then she was left to wait for Wonder Woman to hopefully finish the fight. It was bloody, brutal and determined by pure willpower and determination.

Once Wonder Woman finished the fight, sans her eyesight and by killing the ancient horror, the world was shown the body of her foe melt down and a black pegasus stepped out before the transmission cut off.

"I hated that. I could do so little." Sheila shut down her notebook and set it to the side. She summoned the duty nurse a minute later. "Hello, Mary. I'm afraid I had to break a few laws regarding lawful access to computers, so some government officials are probably going to be on their way to talk to me about it. Would you be so kind to bring them to my room when they come here to track it down?"

* * *

><p>An hour later, Mary directed the two FBI agents walked into the hospital room. The two agents looked at the criminal for a wary second.<p>

The older, gruff looking man raised an eyebrow. "You don't look like you are trying to escape very hard," he said with dry humor. The notebook was put off to the side of the bed and turned off.

"Not at all, sir. I knew I was going to have to play a little fast and loose to keep people from being possibly petrified by Medousa's gaze. I figured it was worth the potential problem if I saved someone's life," she replied simply.

"She really could have turned people to stone through the television?" the younger agent asked.

"Someone was magically keeping that transmission going until after the death of an opponent. I believe the potential to be sufficiently non-zero that steps should be taken."

"Can't really fault the girl. The stations tried to yank it too, she was just smart enough to program it to block the face. Sounds like a pretty straight 'life threatening emergency' that falls under the Meta-Human Powers Act." The older agent grimaced for a second. "Lot's of paperwork though. And we'll have to detain you while we do it."

"Oh, yay. Sixteen and a record." She pouted admirably, but was really too old to pull of 'super-cute puppy-dog eyes.'

* * *

><p>Sheila pushed the doorbell, noting the blood on the mat that had been cleaned up. "Looks like Wonder Woman made it back to the Embassy."<p>

The door opened and a minotaur answered. Sheila reflexively dropped into a combat stance. "Titan spawn?"

The minotaur in the wife-beater and loose slacks raised an eyebrow at that. "I consider myself a scholar and cursed, not a monster of the titans. Though it is interesting that you would think that first rather than just monster."

"Ah, you must be the Ferdinand that everyone wouldn't let me see earlier." Sheila raised her eyebrow. "I think you're the first minotaur that I've met that didn't try to kill me."

"Wonderful," Ferdinand said grumpily. "Are you here to see Diana? You don't look so well yourself."

"I was going nuts in the hospital. I'll heal anyways. And Cassie said she was here."

Wonder Girl entered the foyer. "I thought I heard you. You were in San Francisco, weren't you?"

"Yeah, but I was going nuts. There's only so much you can do with only a computer. And I figured I'd come over to see how Wonder Woman was doing. Blinding herself with the venom of Medousa... that had to be bad." Sheila turned to look at two women behind Cassie. "Amazons?"

"I am Carrisa, from Themyscira," the smaller woman said with disdain that she tried to hide at the woman from the patriarch's land.

"The healer?" Sheila asked in flawless ancient Greek. "I have a great desire to study under you. Medicine is one of the great wonders that I wish to master."

"And I am Io," the burly smithy said, putting her fists on her sturdy hips. "And who are you?" She was garbed, mainly, as always in her leather apron that she did not bother to wear any tunic underneath.

"I am Sheila of the Dodekatheon, Demigoddess of Excellence and Intellect," Sheila replied and gave the burly woman a nod. "A smithy by trade? But one that even Haephestus can be proud of, I am sure."

Io paled in anger at that. "You dare to claim to be of Olympus? I have never heard of you before!"

"I am a Mortal Scion, entreated to become as great as the heroes of the past that earned a place on Olympus, but I have not yet done so," Sheila replied.

Ferdinand let loose what could loosely be termed a whistle from his bovine shaped lips. "A new daughter of the pantheon?"

"I am yet only a Demigoddess. And I am not sure I feel comfortable with worshipers fully." Sheila shrugged.

"And she's from an alternate dimension-" Cassie started.

"Where she is you from the resemblance! I hear no falsity. Forgive our temerity, divine one," Carrisa asked as she bowed low.

"I'm only seventeen, so it's all right. And I've never walked the halls of Olympus." Sheila shrugged.

"Sheila, it's not good with Wonder Woman. Her eyes... She's blind. Even the purple ray did not help," Cassie said as she flopped onto a loveseat.

"She said it was a wound from the gods themselves and could not be healed by mortal hands," the Themysciran healer said softly.

"That sounds like a challenge and my cue. I'll be back in a minute," Sheila said, stepping up the stairs carefully. In just a moment, she knocked on Diana's door, following the resting heartbeat.

"I asked that I be allowed to rest," Diana ordered fuzzily.

"Just a moment of your time, Wonder Woman," the Scion asked respectfully.

"Sheila?" the ex-princess asked.

Sheila opened the door just a bit. "I just wished to see what I could do to aid you. It... does look grim. If that venom had been just a little bit more toxic, you would have been killed as it ate your brain."

"It is beyond mortal science and healing. I wish to rest. Please leave," Diana asked. She turned over and fell back to sleep almost instantly.

Sheila smiled sadly. "To be so badly mistreated." She waved her hand once, then twice.

She headed back downstairs to the rest. "Her wounds were grievous. It would take a prodigy of healing that stands higher than Medousa in mystical ranking to heal those wounds."

Cassie's head dropped into her hands at that in frustration.

* * *

><p>"Yes," Athena said in the dark of the night in Diana's room as she appeared.<p>

Diana Prince, Wonder Woman and one-time Princess of Themyscira started awake at that. "Athena... it is you!" she blurted out.

Athena's eyes were a bit hard. "It is me, Champion." She moved closer to her bed. "You bid Ares ask me a question. And though it is not even for you to know the mind of a goddess, I give you this answer: Yes. Garibaldi's son had to die."

"Why take the boy? I would have gladly taken his place?" Diana stood up. "Why heal my eyes while he is stone?" she asked as she stood up. She saw a start of surprise in her goddess.

"It was not your time," Athena quickly answered.

"You did not heal me," the champion of the Amazons said suddenly. "I can see it in your eyes. You were surprised."

"You will have to look elsewhere for that answer, but for the boy; Forty-seven million, three hundred and eighty-four thousand, nine hundred and fourteen people were watching battle Medousa on live television. Without your intervention and her death, she would have turned her gaze upon the world." Athena narrowed her eyes in thought.

Someone had intervened to stop her gaze from reaching through the television. Not by stopping it and fighting Circe's magic, but by blocking only her face. But Diana did not know that yet.

"There had to be another way," Diana declared.

"You presume too much." Athena's voice had turned even harder. "One boy is a small price to the world to stop her hate and insanity."

"Tell that to his father," Diana demanded.

"No, Daughter. I leave that to you."

Athena faded away from sight between the moments silently.

Diana sat in the dark for a long moment, but then turned to head downstairs. She found Cassie, Fernidand, Carrisa, Io and Sheila sitting around a table chatting over the demolished remains of dinner.

"Diana!" Cassie called out in glee. "Wait. You can see!" she blurted out as she stood up. She turned to Sheila. "You said that she would have to be healed by someone that mystically outranked Medousa!"

"Well, I did say her wounds _were_ grievous," Sheila said lightly. "I didn't have to do anything like remove them to regrow them."

"You can _do that_?" Carrisa asked in surprise. That seemed to boggle the healer.

"It was tough. I had to determine all of her damage down to the sub-cellular and then overpower the mystical poison still in her system. And she didn't even want to talk to me," Sheila complained.

"Can you... can you heal Peter's boy?" Diana asked, kneeling before Sheila.

The young Scion kneeled back, putting her hand on Diana's shoulder and trying to show her that she did care. "Your heart really is great, isn't it? I already looked. He is not wounded, nor sick. And my skills are all about inflicting or healing wounds. Maybe if I can find the right Relic, I might be able to try to turn him back. But that is not in my power right now."

"You already tried?" Wonder Woman asked in surprise.

"Why wouldn't I?" Sheila asked in confusion.

"But Athena said that he was the price for stopping Medousa." Diana stood back up, helping Sheila stand at the same time.

Sheila frowned. "I can't say. Athena is smarter and knows more than I do. She may be placing things for battles in the future so that things must happen."

"I should have more faith in her. I am a poor champion."

"I don't know. I think you could teach me a thing or two about fighting and honor," Sheila said.

"She handles me easily. I always feel like such a novice when I fight her," Cassie complained.

Diana actually gave Sheila a very penetrating look. "Actually, have you two ever been evaluated?"

"For fighting skill? Not really," Sheila replied dubiously.

"Haven't you been doing that?" the daughter of Zeus asked.

"Sometimes you have to be evaluated by someone other than one of your teachers," Wonder Woman said as she stood up.

* * *

><p>Conner was sitting up in his room, staring at the ceiling. The sounds of grain rustling in the wind was oddly soothing through the open window of the Kent farmhouse.<p>

"Conner! You have visitors!" Pa Kent said from the bottom of the stairs.

The Boy of Steel trudged down the stairs while putting on glasses. It was probably just some of the kids from Smallville High again. So when he opened the door to see a familiar pair of blondes, he was quite surprised. "Cassie? Sheila?"

"Hey, Conner!" his girlfriend called out, waving. "We figured you could used a pick-me-up."

"And no, moping in your room is not a valid response," Sheila said firmly over his protests. They both grabbed his arms and pulled him outside. "So, what is there to do on a nice day like this?"

"Any fishing holes around?" Cassie asked with artful innocence.

"Well, yeah." Conner led them down the road past fieldrows of corn, making small talk.

"So, still feel like its your fault for beating us up?" Sheila asked curiously.

"Sheila!" Cassie exclaimed.

"Yeah," Conner finally said. "I should have been better."

"Nobody is perfect, Conner. We all have our fears, our sorrows, our mistakes." Sheila reached down to pick up a rock and skip it across the pond to land in the mud on the far side over two hundred feet away.

Cassie leaned over and hugged him. "Nobody's immune to being controlled. Diana said that Superman just got controlled. She had to kill Maxwell Lord to stop him."

"Or manipulated. Even by people you trust." Sheila was thinking over what had been happening Wonder Woman.

"But we're heroes. We're supposed to _be_ better." Conner looked like he was going to fall back into his funk.

"Looks like Plan B time, Cassie," Sheila said as she kicked off her shoes.

"Plan B?" Conner asked with a confused expression on his face as Cassie kicked off her own shoes.

"We go skinny dipping to distract you with your libido," his girlfriend said with a straight face as she turned towards the water and stripped off her t-shirt.

"That-that- will probably work," Conner admitted as the two girls dove into the water.

"Get in here Conner!" Sheila called out as she splashed her 'sister'.

Even being chased out of the water at super-speed later by a neighboring farmer couldn't dampen his mood much. Though they did have to explain to Martha why they were so wet.

"Maybe we shouldn't tell Pa that you went skinny dipping in the day. Though you do look a bit better, Conner," she said as she ruffled his wet hair affectionately. "And it isn't anything we didn't do as kids. Well, at _night_ anyways."

"Yes, Ma," Clark said as his blush started to recede. He gave Sheila a quick hug and then Cassie a much deeper hug and light kiss. "Thanks, you two."

Sheila suddenly stepped up and put her hands on their heads. "A small blessing. You two just looked too cute together."

They waved their goodbyes and after a quick scan around, Cassie flew them both off.

"I told you that visiting him was going to be a good idea," Sheila said.

"Well, you are the smart one," Cassie replied with a shrug as she flew them through a cloud.

"You could be just as smart as I am, you know."

"You have a big head-start. But I'm working on it," she admitted. "I've been putting more effort into my studying."

"Good!"

* * *

><p>"This is going to be rough," Sheila said a few days later. She was feeling much better after she had taken over her own medical regime and using just her skills in modern medicine.<p>

She and Cassie were standing back to back in a high tech, circular room. "You want me to disagree?" Wonder Girl asked.

"No, just stating the obvious. I do that when I'm nervous. I'll have to avoid that in the future," Sheila replied.

"Whenever you are ready, guys!" Cassie called out.

That was when the Justice League of America attacked from the dark edge around the circle. Flash started zipping between them, trying to disorient them both while Black Canary and Plastic Man hit them head on. Martian Manhunter flew above them, trying to cloud their minds with his telepathy.

Up in the control room, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman watched the two teens fight.

"Wonder Girl has improved," Batman admitted grudgingly. "She's learned to control her body a great deal more." Black Canary and Plastic Man were finding her to be far more effective in combat.

Sheila shouted out a 'KYAAAAA' while jabbing her hand out like a knife towards the Flash as he ran by. He went spinning as his legs lost control.

"She did not hit him. She's not fast enough," Superman said in surprise. "That looked like a martial art maneuver though."

"She pushed her chi through the air and hit a pressure point. That probably won't work again, but that took out the dangerous element first." Batman was slightly impressed by that. He would have to watch out for that himself. He also made note to practice that move or something similar to deal with speedsters like Zoom.

"When did you get so good, kid?" Black Canary asked. Wonder Girl had always been more a brawler. How she was fighting now... it was more refined.

"What are you talking about?" Cassie asked in confusion. She was quite surprised at how well she was doing.

"When did you get the dedication to learn your body to that degree?" the martial-artist agent asked.

"I've just been practicing with Sheila at times," Cassie countered.

"Well, you can thank her after you finish beating me up," Black Canary said.

"I can't read her mind." The Martian Manhunter's voice was almost a complaint. It was like reading several minds all at once, all dealing with this fight. He faded to invisibility.

"Man, she's like hitting the wind," Plastic Man said he tried to envelope Sheila by stretching out as a four-armed sheet.

So when she started to spin his center, like he was some sort of taffy or pizza dough, he was quite surprised.

"Waaaaahggg!" Plastic said just before he splatted into a wall.

Martian Manhunter let out his breath explosively as Sheila kicked his invisible self in the gut. "You saw me?"

"You distorted the ambient cosmic rays slightly with your invisibility. Just enough to see where you were at," she replied.

That was when Sheila and Cassie saw the door open to admit Superman.

"Oh, crud," Cassie said, but dodged a blow barely from Batman as he attacked from behind her. "Is that a spacial awareness like Sheila has?" she asked herself.

Batman did not bother to answer, spinning into kick then two chops that Cassie blocked. He had to admit, that this girl really had improved. She still had a few rough edges that she depended on her powers for.

But that is all it was. Rough edges on a super-human physique.

Superman's punches thundered at incredible speeds, but were either deflected or dodged. Though it appeared she was barely able to so. "So, about four tons?" he asked.

"That's about right," she replied with a tinge of nervousness.

"You can't hurt me, you know." Superman did not use his abilities to cow people often, but when he did they usually listened.

"Really? You have an amazing physiology. Not quite human." Her tone was light and casual.

"You are going to make me eat my words, aren't you?" Superman suddenly asked with a bit of worry.

Sheila just nodded as her fists started to glow with divine power. Superman moved to avoid being hit, but the attack was ranged. The energy coalesced into a knife hand that smashed into his stomach like a tank.

Superman skidded for a second, then clutched his stomach from the barely felt attack and leaned forward to lose his lunch.

"You know, you don't see that happen to Superman often," Plastic Man said from where he was splatted on the wall.

Sheila boomed past Martian Manhunter and Black Canary at Mach 2 and struck at Batman, even as he suddenly found himself fighting two teens in a coordination he had rarely seen out of hive-minds or twins trained from birth.

With a snap, his belt was ripped off even as Wonder Girl's punch had him seeing stars.

Sheila started to dodge as Superman blurred back into the fight even faster than she had run. His hand grasped the back of her neck and then slammed her three feet into the metal floor.

All Wonder Girl's punch to Superman's nose did was to knock him off her alternate-self. "Sheila!" That was when Batman put her into a full-nelson.

That Scion was busy pulling herself out of the floor when her body tried to warn her of a red and yellow blur that started punching her insanely fast.

"That's enough!" Wonder Woman called out.

"Ouch. Anyone get the number of that airplane that hit me?" Sheila asked from fifty feet away. "Hey, you shouldn't have been able to recover from that!" she blurted out to the Flash.

"I heal fast," Wally said with a smirk.

"That nerve punch was permanent without the counter. Or surgery," she countered.

"I heal _really_ fast." The scarlet speedster was still smirking.

"Why were you holding back against us? I thought you said this was an all-out evaluation?" Cassie asked Batman as she held out his belt.

"I know _I_ was not holding back," the grim defender of Gotham said as he accepted his belt.

"I know everyone else put almost all their efforts into it from what I could see," Wonder Woman said as she walked in. "You exceeded my expectations handily, both of you. I knew you to be warriors, but your skill is great enough to stand up to the Justice League."

"I'm just glad I know Torquasm-Vo to be able to counter the nerve pinch you did on me," Superman said as he rubbed his stomach.

Five minutes later, the Justice League was sitting around the table.

"Well?" Wonder Girl asked.

"You've improved phenomenally. I would have to consider that you two are probably in the top twenty-five in martial arts in the world." Batman frowned as he thought over things. "Sheila's ability is supernatural in level, actually. I don't know that any purely non-superhuman martial artist could defeat her."

"I actually used a power to smash city walls on Superman. That wasn't only a martial art," she replied.

"That means you think well under pressure," Flash said. "We have to do that a lot."

"They are definitely A-List material," Black Canary said as Plastic Man nodded.

"Though I am curious as to how you are blocking my telepathy with noise," Martian Manhunter asked curiously.

"Noise? I'm just thinking," Sheila replied.

"You think a lot then?" Wonder Woman ask.

"Oh, yes. I'm working on several degrees and a few projects currently. I'm capable of multi-thinking to a fully parallel degree."

Cassie glared at her. "In English, Sheila."

"Oh, I can think about nine different things at once." She shrugged.

"Like Brainiac can supposedly. But immaterial. I would say you passed the evaluation with flying colors."

"But we didn't win," Sheila complained, sounding remarkably petulant and immature for once.

"Not even Superman wins every time," Wonder Woman said with a soft smile. "That's why the JLA exists."

As they were leaving, Cassie looked over to Sheila. "So, you really hate losing? Even just games?"

Her 'false-self' just nodded. "I'm afraid I have too much of my self-worth tied up in being 'best.' Or at least doing my best."

"Sounds like double-chocolate fudge sundae therapy time then."

"I thought I was supposed to be the smart one?" Sheila asked.

* * *

><p>"Cassandra," the voice of Ares, God of War, came to her from the reflection in the window glass, hiding the outside world clothed in the darkness of night.<p>

Cassandra said after a long moment of thought, "Hello... Brother."

"That is overly familiar, Wonder Girl," the god in his midnight-black armor warned.

"No, it's merely accurate. Isn't it? I mean, I'm the daughter of Zeus just like you are his son," she countered as she tried to control her anger.

"That is... surprising. I was not under the impression that you knew of your father."

"The Deceiver surprised by the truth?" Cassie looked over at her brother for a long moment. "Why was I given power, instead of being told to earn my own as a Scion?"

His eyes widening at her pronouncement said a lot. "Who told you of Scions?" he asked angrily.

"Sheila."

"That fake you? So in another time and space, you were raised to your greatness on your own."

"She's been teaching me to use my own power. I can heal a bit on my own now. And I can feel the difference between Zeus's power and my own," she said.

"Interesting. I wonder if Athena knows of this fake and that she is a Scion?" Ares mused. "You will have to make a decision soon, Daughter of Zeus. And the cost will be more than you can bear."

His image faded from the window, leaving her alone in her dark room.

"Love you too, brother."

* * *

><p>"Are you sure you are all right, Diana?" Cassie asked a week later. They were standing in the blustery snow after Martin Garibaldi's memorial.<p>

"I will be all right. I will heal," she replied.

Sheila stood in the background, wondering if she should offer to heal her wounds. But Diana seemed very proud. Diana just had gone off to deal with hell hounds that had gotten loose somehow just hours ago as the latest threat.

The Amazon was not at full ability, but refused to slacken her duties in the slightest.

Watching the close knit group try to heal their grievous pains from the loss of the small boy Martin, Sheila deeply felt the ache of loneliness and of not really being accepted.

And why should she? She was not of this world and had made little progress in figuring a way to use the Touchstone sites to return to her time. Something about that Relic made of Kryptonite. She had agreed to give it up to the Amazons and she had been told it had been taken to Themyscira.

No one here seemed to know of how to breach dimensional barriers except the Flashes or the Gods. And even the Flashes had to use near light-speed velocities. And Sheila was no Flash, not even slightly.

The Phantom Zone or whatever a one wished to call it was the only other dimension she could enter and it won't lead her back home. She knew that deep in her heart.

She was sitting down in the foyer of the Themysciran Embassy when she felt the coming of someone powerful. She heard the low voice orders from Aphrodite... and reacted barely in time to smash through the door into Diana's room and then through the flickering portal to Zeus's throne room itself at her full speed, rattling the building behind her with her sonic boom.

"...prepare to do battle!" Aphrodite was saying.

"An intruder!" Demeter called out in surprise.

"Yes. But this has been my only opportunity to come to Olympus," Sheila said taking in the four goddesses, Ares in the shadows, Zeus and his monstrous Titan Brirareos. "He's a bit smaller than I expected."

"Trollop, you interfere with the affair of Gods!" Zeus roared in anger.

"You are correct, Grandfather, for that is the right of children of the Gods," Sheila replied simply, looking at this dimension's representative of what she thought was her natural born father.

That stopped everyone but the Titan and Wonder Woman in surprise, though only Ares in his corner just smirked. Sending those Hell Hounds out to wear down Diana was going to prove interesting.

"Who are you that claim kinship to us?" Athena asked, though in her heart she already suspected.

"I am Sheila, Scion of Pallas Athena from a far dimension; Demigoddess of Excellence and Intellect," she said to the room.

"An interesting story, but unlikely, as I am a Virgin Goddess," the Gray Eyed Goddess declared.

"I believe it to be by adoption, as I seem to be an analogue of Cassandra Sandsmark."

"That matters not! Pallas Athena, that sprung from my forehead, has declared her intention to usurp my throne!" Zeus roared. "You join this battle as her Champion at the peril of your life, Diana of Themyscira!" The great sky-god of Olympus raised his hands. "You have no hope to defeat my own Champion. Follow wisdom that has fled you patron and her sister conspirators..." Zeus smiled nastily at this point. "...and know your place, woman."

"Is there no room for reason here?" Wonder Woman asked.

"No, that seems to have fled," Ares said nastily. "Your Champion looks a bit battered, Athena." His black silk shirt was unbuttoned, showing the scars on the blond's chest as he smirked.

Athena's eyes darted to him as she realized that her Champion did indeed look more worn down than she had planned. Treachery at the hands of the Deceiver again.

Sheila's eyes narrowed as she processed things as quickly as possible. "Of course. Wonder Woman has not been declared as Champion of Athena in this battle."

"She has already had her chance to summon her Champion!" Zeus declared. He would have to do something nice for Ares for once, the King of Gods thought to himself.

"Then it is good that I followed her here. I submit myself, mother, to be thy Champion in the place of Diana of Themyscira against Zeus." Sheila knelt down in front of her mother, putting her right fist across to her opposing shoulder in respect. "I owe thee a debt and a sacrifice, but for this fight I would do for free because of that male chauvinist pig's words."

"Sheila, no!" Diana called out. "This should be my fight." But she had to admit to herself, she had been weakened. Weakened enough that fighting the mighty Titan would probably lose her the challenge and Athena's and her own life.

Zeus's jaw slackened in shock at that comment.

"I can not grant you any of mine power, changeling daughter from another world. You would have to stand on your own two feet against Briareos one-hundred arms!" Athena declared.

"I would have it no other way. Mighty Ares, once I am garbed for war, wilt thou consecrate this battle?" Sheila asked as she opened her personal tesseract to start retrieving her full armor.

"If both parties agree to the sacred ritual, I will do so," Ares declared as he summoned his midnight-black armor.

Athena's mouth tightened as she thought furiously. It appeared her hopes and aspirations were on this young girl that claimed to the daughter of _a_ Pallas Athena. "I will assist my Champion in putting her armor on." She would have to whisper the changed plan to her quickly.

Demeter, Aphrodite and Hera looked at each other in shock. The dark-skinned goddess frowned as she realized that Athena's plan to let Diana use Medousa's head to turn the Titan to stone was for naught.

Sheila was garbed in head to toe armor that looked slightly Grecian, but appeared far, far more advanced. Her primary weapon did not appear to be a sword or axe, but a high-tech rifle.

"I am ready," Sheila declared, looking incredibly frail against the purple mass of the one-hundred foot tall Titan.

"Let this battle be consecrated with sacred fire until one has fallen!" Ares declared as his axe, alight with fire, slammed to the ground of the throne room. "Let none cross this line and only the victor emerge!"

Briareos roared with his hundred voices and came down upon the ground where Sheila stood with his four primary fists to shatter the marble rock like gypsum plaster instead of hard rock.

But his foe had dodged the attack like it was standing still. Sheila landed on the ground over fifty feet away, tapping a control on her gauntlet that caused a shimmer across her body for just a second.

Then she was forced to dodge a second time, flickering across the span of the room, raising her rifle. With a whine, it charged up and flung a black speck that blasted a small hole through the Titan's chest. "Hmm. I was expecting slightly more damage from the singularity rifle."

Ares raised an appreciative eyebrow. "She's using a rifle that fires micro-black holes? It sounds like your 'daughter' likes her guns, Athena."

Athena just nodded.

"Is that a patriarch weapon?" Hera asked curiously.

"Maybe in another thousand years. It appears Athena's Scion is a bit of an over-achiever," her son said lightly.

"No mortal weapon will defeat the titan Briareos, Athena," Aphrodite said as she let her sunglasses slide down her nose slightly. The diaphanous ribbons that drifted around her body shifted to a gray color in her worry.

Briareos seemed unable to hit Sheila either though, as the Scion of Athena set the weapon to a higher level to start pecking him with small, human-sized wounds. One shot missed him, bouncing off the barrier that Ares had erected.

"Your new champion does not seem to be that powerful, Athena. It appears you have overestimated her value. Perhaps you should let Diana fight, wounded as she is," Zeus said in a gloating tone. Then he could have gotten rid of both of his troublemakers.

That was when Sheila stumbled on the debris that was rapidly accumulating. The mighty fist of Briareos slammed down with full force, smashing Sheila into the ground and breaking her rifle.

"Father!" Athena cried out as Sheila was pummeled again. She knelt before her father. "Please, have mercy on her, the victory will be yours. She is but a child and in a strange way, possibly my only daughter I will ever have."

"No! You have contrived to steal my throne and my power! There will be no mercy this day! Briareos! Destroy the interloper and finish this mockery of a fight! Let all see the fate of traitors!"

All four fists came down on Sheila's struggling, maimed body with stunning force.

"Then know this, father, your fate is now sealed," Athena declared, much to everyone's surprise. Even Ares looked a bit disconcerted under his helmet as his flaming red eyes widened as the sight that seemed to show Athena _losing_, not winning.

"As thou wilt, Pallas Athena," the air barely on the other side of the flaming barrier called out as Sheila appeared from a static of invisibility. "As thou hast stated, Olympus can not be ruled by one that has no mercy."

Briareos pulled his fists from the deep crater, showing no body at the body.

"An illusion? No, Briareos would have seen through that after hitting it," Demeter said curiously.

"Briareos, I call on thee to surrender. I wilt spare thy life, though I detest the thought of a Titanspawn such as thee existing," Sheila called out as the air around her congealed in bronze and steel, putting her much closer to the multi-armed monster's size, armed with a massive spear.

Her fifteen feet tall armored colossal form was now only dwarfed by six times.

Briareos roared back as he swung his fists at the slightly larger target, but once again failed to make contact with the amazingly nimble figure, the mighty spear in her hand glowing.

"Then know this, you face the unfettered might of a Demigoddess of Battle!" Sheila called out as an amazing light overtook her spear, leaving it glowing with a red aura.

"I haven't seen anyone using a battle technique like that in quite a while," Ares said, interested greatly in the figure. She truly was a demigoddess with power to rival the weaker gods.

The demigoddess dodged around the huge figure, then struck with a massive strike that cleaved one of his four, main arms off. Briareos stared in shock as the divine damage beyond mortal compare. His scream of pain was deafening even through the barrier.

It became a battle of attrition, as Briareos found himself being cut again and again with the godly reinfused weapon, but it was forgone as he could not even hit the foe normally.

She was just too fast.

As Briareos breathed his last, Athena stepped up to her horrified father. "You have lost, father. It is time to take your rest with your Sister-Wife."

Athena sat upon the throne as she declared her winnings, taking the mantle of Lord of Olympus. Finally she bade her champions approach and kneel.

"Know this, you are my Champion, Diana of Themscyria. Only because of your wounds, which I am certain were caused to the Deceiver, did you lose your place in this challenge." Her gray eyes seemed to stare deeply into Sheila. "You are not my daughter, but I am not displeased. I wish to know you better."

By proclamation, acclimation and right of battle, Athena became Lord of Olympus.

* * *

><p>"So, let me get this right," Sheila asked Athena only a week later in her throne room. "You want us to recover gentle Hermes from the Underworld where Hades has laid claim to him for eternity?" She was wearing her armor, which everyone around her was starting to assume was her 'superhero' outfit.<p>

"Are you questioning my right to ask you to do this?" the new Lord of Olympus asked.

Diana and Cassie both winced at the deceptively mild tone.

"No, I just wanted to be sure that I was your emissary in declaring war on Hades, Lord of Olympus," she replied stiffly.

"I am pleased to see you understand your role," the Goddess of Wisdom said simply. "Are you prepared for your journey?"

"Great Athena, have you given thought to my request?" Diana asked.

"You may ask, champion, when you have returned successfully. Not before," was the regal reply.

"So I can go with?" Cassie asked in surprise.

"All three of you will be required, youngest sister."

In moments the three women and Ferdinand were on Paradise Island in a secluded place. Diana stopped by a grave marker, where a Diana Trevor was laid to rest decades ago.

"I was named in her honor, this strange woman that fell from the sky and selflessly sacrificed her life to stop the Gates of Hades from opening. She must have been a great woman." Diana and the others took a moment of quiet introspection for respect.

Then they all pushed on the stone gate, rolling the door out of the way.

"That was far too easy. Beware, this could be a trap," Diana warned as they started to go down.

Sheila was looking down the hole, eyes wide. "I can't see the bottom." She clicked her tongue to try echolocation.

Ferdinand chuckled at that. "It is said that heroes fell for over a week before hitting the bottom."

When they were attacked by illusions of the mind, all of them were overcome quickly to split them up.

Cassie kept her eyes narrowed as the snake-thing, an empousai, dragged her off from everyone else. Her knee suddenly came up and slammed its mouth shut jarring force.

"You are awake?" it screeched. "I'll take you blood and you will exist in despair forever in Hades!"

"Like you?" the Scion of Zeus taunted. She concentrated carefully, then unleashed a powerful blow that knocked it out almost instantly. She blew off her knuckles, happy at the effect of using her full strength correctly.

She found Diana just a few minutes later, stumbling along deeper and deeper into the abyss of Hades. "Diana! Diana! Wake up!"

After a few moments, she finally shook her free from the entrapping illusion.

"Great Hera, I thought I was all alone. I had been walking for days," the Amazon said.

"Really messes up your time sense," Sheila said as she walked down from above, carrying the unconscious Ferdinand over her shoulder.

"Okay over there, Sheila?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah, I just had to work a bit to keep track of Bull-Boy here," she replied. "I wasn't able to snap him out right now."

The caverns around them had changed to the shore of the Styx.

"Everyone has their fare?" Sheila quipped as she opened up her hand so they could see what she held. "Silver dollars. Never travel the Underworld without them."

The ferryman led them across even as Ferdinand awoke. As they traveled across, Sheila put her hands on all the other, bolstering them. They traveled up a path from the river to a mighty gate which opened up in the gloom of the darkness.

"That is an awful lot of bad guys," Sheila noted.

"You're stating the obvious again, Sheila," Wonder Girl said, causing the her doppelganger to wince.

"Hades, we have come seeking Hermes," Wonder Woman called out. "We wish no battle this day."

Hades stood in front of his two brothers; deposed Zeus and mighty Posiedon. Behind them in the shadows stood Ares and the hordes of Hades.

"Then you have come to the wrong place, for Hermes is mine! As are all the dead!" boomed the god of death as he gripped his cane closely. He was wearing a top-hat and funeral suit. "Did you really think you would be allowed here after your part in dethroning my brother?"

"We seek not a conflict with you, Hades," Sheila called out, easing her singularity rifle up and away from accidentally shooting someone. "There have been times when even your heart could be compelled to release your jealously guarded souls. Do you so yearn for your nephew's presence that you will not let the messenger of the gods surcease to return to the mortal and overworld?"

Hades looked like he had been greatly insulted. "The dead are mine! And you shall never see the light of day again! It is time to pay for your transgressions against the Kings of the Gods!"

"Kill them all!" Poseidon shouted, directing the skeletons against the four interlopers with his trident.

"Fight!" Diana ordered. "Ferdinand! Break through and find Hermes!"

"Of course!" the gruff, man-beast said. His fists slammed into the first skeleton, smashing it to pieces.

"You'd think once in a while that this would not be an epic journey," Sheila complained as her rifle started firing into the first row with pinpoint accuracy on their spines, sending the skeletons scattering.

Wonder Girl was busy wrestling with one of Cerebus's heads. "Yeah, this wasn't exactly the way I thought I'd meet my uncles and father again."

Zeus blinked at that, then shook it off. The heroines and the minotaur were having a tough time off it. He narrowed his eyes in thought.

"Hermes, ten o'clock high at six hundred feet!" Sheila called out.

The caduceus in Wonder Woman's belt seemed to glow even brighter at that pronouncement. "We must get to Hermes! Break through, Ferdinand!"

Cassie called out as she saw the hanging figure, "He's not moving, Wonder Woman. He's dead!"

They fought for another two minutes, not making any progress. Wonder Girl looped her lasso around skeletons, unleashing the lightning of her anger. She suddenly reared back as if she had a javelin, summoning a livenbolt of pure energy just like her father was famous for, blasting another set of skeletons away.

Diana could only look at that in surprise. It seemed Cassandra had been working hard on her powers.

"Change in the rules!" Sheila shouted, suddenly throwing with both hands small, round devices. "Fire in the hole!" Explosions and smoke suddenly covered the battlefield as the grenades went off. Shards of skeleton were sent flying in great gouts to bounce off the hard rock of the walls and ceiling.

Ares had to chuckle and then burst out laughing. "Oh, she's a charmer."

"Sheila, what are you doing?" Cassie shouted angrily as a skeleton managed to cut her in the ensuing chaos.

"Pulling an Ender," she replied as she ran across the heads of the skeletons through the smoke, the purloined Caduceus in her hand as she charged towards Hermes at high speed. She put the Caduceus up against him before any of the gods reacted, releasing a brilliant light and awakening Hermes.

"Hello! Say, who are you?" Hermes asked as he alighted to the ground with his Caduceus in his hand.

"She's dead!" Hades shouted as the power over the dead slammed into Sheila from his cane. "Did you think you could challenge me in my Domain?"

"If I must," Sheila replied as she raised her Singularity rifle.

That was when Hades unleashed the spectral spirits of the dead upon her fully, devouring her life force. Her singularity shot missed him, blasting a hole in the ceiling. The Demigoddess screamed in agony under the assault.

"Hey!" Hermes said, only to be brought up short by several undead holding new, gleaming swords up to his throat. "What is going on here?"

"Hades! Stop it! She's just a child!" Wonder Woman shouted, becoming angry.

"Even the young die," the Greek god of Death said with a smirk, upping the power he was sending out.

"Get him out," Sheila managed to get out. "Athena wants him rescued."

"Hades! Brother!" Zeus beseeched. "She is no match for you." His face was twisted in sympathy that had been lacking in his own throne room as the girl shrieked again.

"Then she will die!" Hades shouted as he again blasted her with etheric, ghostly energy. A loud 'tchunk' sound sounded as Ares abruptly struck from behind. "-jwha?"

"Time for the murder," Ares said simply. "And I do want her to owe me one."

Poseidon finally understood. "Betrayed! You were working with that slut!" the Lord of the Seven Seas shouted as he raised his trident.

A crackling lightning bolt was suddenly held up to block even as skeletons held their Ares-crafted swords up to his neck. Cassie's eyes gleamed red in anger. "I would not push your luck, uncle."

The god of the seas took in the force arrayed against him. "So, you seek to usurp my domain too?"

"I'm sure that Athena could find someone to take your domain if you were so foolish to get yourself killed here," Ares the Deceiver said with a grim smile under his helmet.

Poseidon retreated to the waters, sputtering his impotent anger.

"And now the reward," Ares said as he took up Hades' cane.

"Was there no other way? Did he have to be killed?" Diana asked in frustration.

"Unlike Zeus, Hades was his domain. He had to die to be replaced." Ares had a very self assured, smug smile upon his face. His red eyes gleamed in the dark shadows.

"She's dead," Wonder Girl said. She was kneeling down next to the pale figure laying crumpled on the ground.

"No!" Ferdinand said, fearing the worst. Athena's anger would be towering, the Minotaur knew. He wished to be removed from his curse, not cursed to an eternity of torment.

"Then it's a good thing I'm the new God of the Dead," Ares said as he raised Hades' cane, awaking Sheila from her slumber of death. His helmet had vanished again.

"Are you all right?" Wonder Girl asked, gushing with happiness.

"No," Sheila said curtly.

"You don't mind that you owe me your life?" the Deceiver asked curiously.

"No." She stood up at that. "By the way, you are wrong."

"About?" Ares asked curiously, his smug smile not slipping the least.

"If Hades was his domain, when you killed him you should have destroyed the Realm of Death." She was giving him a flat look. "Which means if he truly is his realm, you did not kill him." She looked at Hades' cane specifically.

"Oh, damnation," Ares said as he tried to remove the cane from his hand, but it acted like it was glued to it suddenly. Weak laughter drifted from the cane.

"Would you like some assistance in removing Hades' soul receptacle, 'uncle'?" Sheila asked with saccharine sweetness. "I'm sure that would balance any favors owed to you."

"Yes, damn you! Yes!" Ares said in a panic as he tried to remove the cursed item.

He barely had a moment to hear the rasp of Sheila's sword as it was pulled from her upside-down back sheath. The red glow faded from it as Ares' hand thumped to the ground, still clutching Hades' cane of power.

"Damn you!" the god of unrestrained battle shouted.

"That looks like it hurt," Hermes said. "I could suggest a poultice or two." His tone was quite mild, even as his smile was wide as he staunched the blood from the wound. He frowned as he realized that his healing could not repair the hand. "That didn't work quite right."

"I'm sure that Hephaestus would be happy to craft you a replacement for use in battle, but I think the more important thing is trapping that cane before it can spirit itself away," Sheila said evenly.

"Yes, indeed," Ares said as his lips twisted in a snarl as he turned his gaze between the two. "Family," he finally spat out. How he loathed that word right then.

Diana and Cassie both hugged Sheila tight. "You should not have done that," Wonder Woman said. "That was foolish."

"I should have just run away back with his body instead of trying to awaken. But fighting _through_ the armies of Hades wasn't working so well," she replied.

"Ender?" Cassie asked.

"Science Fiction novel. Ignore the fighters and defeat the true objective, which is not always the destruction of the warriors," she replied.

"Not that I'm not glad or anything, but I get the feeling I've missed quite a bit," Hermes said, tipping his winged helm back. "Who are the twins, Diana?"

"Later, Lord Hermes. Your sister bade rescue you and return we must," Diana said.

Zeus stepped up from the shadows, looking morose. "I do not deserve your time, but I beg that I be given leave to accompany you to my daughter, the Lord of Olympus."

"Very well, Mighty Zeus. If you would, Hermes, guide our way," Wonder Woman said as she and Cassie continued to help with Ferdinand and Sheila.

Hermes blinked. "I remember how, but I really think I need to be caught up here."

In a flash, they all disappeared from Hades and Ares' hollow victory as he bellowed his roar of anger in private.

* * *

><p>The light of Hermes' teleportation faded, leaving them all battered and bruised in the throne room of Athena, Lord of Olympus.<p>

"I say, moving up in the world, sister?" Hermes asked.

"It is good to see your light heart, brother Hermes. I see that you have all succeeded," Pallas Athena said from her throne. "Though it looks like at a cost. What happened to Sheila? And why has my father returned?"

"I died," she replied, turning her head away and shuddering. "And he wishes to speak to you."

"You seem to have recovered," Athena said as she folded her hands across her lap. "Diana, do you still seek your boon?"

"I have never been more certain, my goddess," Diana affirmed solemnly.

"Then young Martin will be restored." Athena then turned to Cassandra. "And you?"

"I wish to be allowed to be a scion of my father," Cassandra said after a long moment.

"What?" Hermes shouted in shock.

"Do you know what you seek?" Athena asked in warning.

Cassandra looked over at her false-self. "I think I do. I seek myself without limits and standing upon my own two feet."

"So be it," the Lady Lord of Olympus declared, much to the two god's shock. "And finally, banished Zeus. What brings you back to my throne so quickly?"

The ancient god looked down for a long moment. "I come seeking a small token of your forgiveness. I did not realize how far I had fallen and to what depths I would seek. Truly, I had no mercy and could not see the fault of that."

"You are still my father. I grant you this easily, for I wish no harm upon you, but merely saw that I must act to protect Olympia." Athena then turned to Sheila again. "I will call your sacrifice paid and say that most of your debt is paid."

"Lord of Olympus, I fear I must ask for another favor," Sheila said, raising her haunted eyes. "I can not forgot death nor dying. I am shattered and trapped in my memory."

Everyone looked confused, until dawning came to Wonder Girl. "She has a perfect memory. She never forgets anything."

Hermes shuddered at that. "I would not wish that on my worst enemies."

"Come with me, daughter not of me," Athena said softly. "Hermes, if you will handle returning them to Earth and that other matter."

* * *

><p>It was a day later that Sheila, cleansed and clothed in a toga stared at the board in front of her, the chess pieces arrayed in battle on the round, marble table.<p>

The huge owl in front of her tilted its head, then with its claw moved a pawn forward.

"You are trying to goad me into a rash attack," she accused the bird.

Its reaction was unruffled as it did not bother to respond.

"Sheila, how are you doing?" Athena asked as she entered the airy room open to the majesty of Olympus in all its Escheresque glory.

"Concentrating upon an exceedingly challenging task does help. Did she learn to play from you?" the scion asked.

"Of course. No one else here really bothered to play. Even Hermes thought it too sedate."

"I haven't bothered to play except against supercomputers recently," Sheila admitted. "Not much of a challenge."

"Come, take this tonic. It will not remove your memories, as you stubbornly cling to them with amazing ferocity, but it may weaken the edge of them." Athena tilted an jar of wine to pour a deep red liquid into it.

"Thank you, Great Athena." She grimaced at the taste and alcohol. "I would have never thought that a perfect memory would be such a bother."

The older goddess nodded as she sat in a divan and reclined gracefully. "You have questions."

The much younger demigoddess nodded as she moved her rook carefully three squares. "But you are not my 'mother' so you probably don't have the answers."

"You can ask anyways."

Most of Sheila's mind was occupied in the droning task of calculating moves of the ongoing chess game. The remaining three parts were considering carefully. "Why would you work so hard to mold me into something so similar to yourself in this modern age?"

The owl blinked at her, silently berating her for being distracted and moving the castle two squares. She then ruffled her feathers.

"Scion... do you understand the word?" Athena asked carefully as she watched their game.

"It denotes an heirship between child and parent," she replied instantly.

"So to see you there, claiming to be my Scion is disconcerting and frankly slightly worrisome. That you are similar to myself soothes that worry, slightly. And you _are_ different than myself is troubling. You have a sister in Cassandra that I never had. Olympus is a seething place of intrigue that you have now found yourself in."

"I don't know. She tried to punch my face in the first time we met," Sheila said as she scowled lightly at the owl's unorthodox attack on her flank. She pushed a pawn to take one of his, causing a ruffle in the owl's feathers. "Didn't expect that, did you? I see your trap."

The owl ruffled its feathers again.

"You are nearly ready to return to Earth, Daughter not of me."

"I think I have to be there. Disasters are brewing."

* * *

><p>Superboy smirked at his evil doppelganger from another universe. He was beaten black and blue, his split lip was bleeding heavily.<p>

"Why are you smiling?" Superboy Prime demanded petulantly.

Superboy just turned over his fist, showing his Teen Titan communicator.

"TITANS... TOGETHER!" the gathered Titans shouted, right on the perfect moment. They were standing behind them in the fields next to Smallville. The Doom Patrol and the Justice Society of America were glad they were there, as it looked like this fake Superboy was very powerful.

"He's going into cardiac arrest," Sheila said as Wonder Girl grabbed Superboy as the heavy hitters tackled Superboy Prime.

"I don't know enough to heal him," Cassie said worriedly.

"His cellular structure is degrading," her doppelganger said worriedly as she looked into his health. "I can't cure that." Sheila's eyes were wide in shock. How had she missed that from earlier?

"Can't we do anything for his wounds?" Sheila asked.

They both put their hands on him, trying to heal him. His breathing became ragged, but easier.

"Stay with him. I aim to have some words with Superboy there." Sheila clenched her fist as she trotted into the combat. "Superboy."

"Oh, the fake-girlfriend." Superboy-Prime smirked at that.

Her glowing fist actually bruised him slightly when it hit. "What the heck was that?" he said, rubbing his slightly hurting jaw.

"Something that didn't work too well," she admitted candidly. This was going to hurt.

Superboy Prime swatted her like she was beneath his notice. She tried roll with the punch, but was still blasted through the Smallville Post Office.

She was just crawling out of the debris when Wyldbeast was killed brutally by the childish super-being. She pulled a short sword that started glowing with a red malevolence.

"Your ruining me!" Superboy Prime was screaming, crying even as he mutilated another Titan.

"Stop!" Sheila shouted as she sliced at him with everything she had.

He almost dodged. And he almost was too tough. But the slice at his throat cut through, blood streaming much to his surprise.

That was when the Flashes started pummeling the faux-Superboy. Their fight would end up blasting Superboy Prime into the Speed Force.

Sheila lowered her raised glowing hand, her teeth bared in a rictus of anger. What she had almost done... She turned and walked over to the half alien who was screaming as he held his leg. To his shock, the whole leg suddenly regrew.

"You... um, thanks," he said as it registered he was not in pain any more. Argent looked at Sheila in shock.

"Superboy," Sheila murmured to herself. In a flash, she ran over towards Cassie where they were loading Conner into the T-Jet. "Cassie... something is happening. I feel people calling for me."

Cassie blinked. "You too?"

Cyborg looked up from a control panel. "That's probably because Paradise Island is being attacked."

"I have to go," Sheila told him. "I have a responsibility now."

"You want a lift?"

Sheila grateful look was all the answer he needed.

* * *

><p>"Fight! We will not let these monsters take our land!" an Amazon shouted, striking out at the OMAC in front of her. They were fighting on the steps of one of the many temples.<p>

Sheila entrance from orbit shattered the sound barrier in the middle of the OMACs, stunning them for a moment as her silver-metallic wings folded up.

"There's too many," Sheila said as she landed next to the front line of the Amazons. "Off." The nearest eight OMACs reverted to their human forms.

"Who are you?" the Amazon asked.

"I am Sheila-" she started to say.

"The Scion of Athena and welcome on this battlefield," Wonder Woman said as she landed.

"The purple death ray is almost finished," the Amazon declared.

"The people inside are innocents-"

"-that are busy killing us, Diana," the Amazon countered. Fires and smoke covered the land.

"Well, that sounds like we need a compromise," Sheila said softly. "Take me to the ray generator."

"Sheila. So it appears the Gods and Goddesses do answer our prayers," the smith Io called out as they approached. "Are you here to see us use the purple ray against these abominations."

"I'm going to see if I can tune it to just affect the shells," she replied.

Io looked over her shoulder at the massive machine. "We have no time. It would take at least ten minutes for any changes."

"Will you let me try?" the young Scion asked.

The Amazons looked between themselves then nodded. "We must have faith in our gods."

"Then I must try my utmost so that I not fail you." Sheila concentrated, splitting herself more and more. In moments, there were nine of her that descended on the Purple Death Ray.

"Fight! Fight for our lives! Fight for our freedom! Fight for our gods!" Io shouted, hefting her huge warhammer. The Amazons, with Wonder Woman at the front, were revitalized, smashing back the seemingly unlimited numbers, blotting out the sky.

Mere minutes later, the Purple Ray had been changed.

"Prepare to rescue the freed civilians!" Sheila called out. The purple beam shot out to devastating affect, shattering the nanites that composed the OMACs as she swept the ray over them, driving them lower and lower.

In moments, the OMACs were defeated, leaving scores of confused men, women and teens all over the ruined city.

The Amazons starting cheering, which the confused civilians started to be pick up or got caught by amazons.

In the air above, Diana was discussing the fate of Themyscira with Athena.

"This island is under the protection of the gods! We shall remove it from the world at this point, before a horrible tragedy can occur," Athena pronounced.

Sheila ended up floating in front of Pallas Athena.

"Will you come with us, Daughter not of myself?" the Lord of Olympus asked.

"I have things to do and people to save. My duties are here and I must still find my way to my home," she replied simply.

"Then let me send you back to your friends of this world." Pallas Athena held up her hand, vanishing Sheila and the Island away to other places.

* * *

><p>Sheila blinked as she appeared next to Cassie in a high-tech bio-lab. Lex Luthor narrowed his eyes dangerously and flashed away in a teleport.<p>

"Drat. I missed turning off his power armor by two tenths of a second," Sheila complained as she finished raising her hand that she had been gesturing with. "Need to remember, no flashy gestures. Just turn him off."

"See, even Sheila thinks we should just capture Lex Luthor," Cassie said to Robin as she folded her arms across her chest petulantly.

"Like I said, this might be one of those situations where we need even Lex Luthor. And he was here to visit Conner," Robin said as he hid his exasperation.

Sheila was looking at the teen floating in the high tech tube. "His cellular degradation has stopped and he's regenerating. He'll wake up soon."

Robin released a tense breath he had been holding. "That's good. Cassie, we have to leave. The Titans are headed to help out with Blűdhaven." He gave her a quick hug.

"I should go, but Conner needs you," Sheila said giving her 'sister' a hug. Her gaze stared deep into her other-self. "Do you mind if I borrow Wonder Girl so she's out there being a symbol of hope?"

"Borrow-? Oh! You want to pretend to be me for a bit?" Cassie asked.

"Just until you come back after Conner is all right," Sheila assured her. "He needs you. But the world needs Wonder Girl too."

"The short hair isn't going to work," the real Wonder Girl said.

Sheila just shook her head as her hair shook out. "Secret Agent lady!" she said with a smirk.

"You could have changed your appearance at _any_ time?" Cassie asked incredulously.

"It's my face too! Besides, everyone gets upset at the person that can copy faces." Sheila grimaced at that. She suddenly grinned and waved her hand, leaving her normal features and hair-length, but with glowing hair. "I'm planning some mythic upgrades."

"You have _got _to teach me that trick," Cassie squealed out.

They quickly changed outfits and Sheila headed outside to catch up to the Teen Titans.

"Wonder Girl?" Robin asked in surprise at the entrance to the T-Jet.

"Just a fill in today."

"Sheila? How'd you grow your hair?" Beast Boy asked in shock.

"Secret Agent Lady Trick!" she replied again.

"You can be a spy?" Robin asked with a grin.

"I have depths you have not seen," she replied with a grin.

* * *

><p>"Its sad. The looters are coming out and ruining their own neighborhood. Well, worse," Sheila said with a morose look on her face, her unfamiliar long hair whipping in the wind.<p>

Blűdhaven burned from the attack of the Brotherhood. The sky was dark from all the smoke and red flames seemed to want to devour everything. The Teen Titans, the black ops forces of the Veteran, Warlock's Daughter, Blue Devil, Ragman and what was left of the Metal Men and Outsiders were doing what they could.

"We are not making any progress here," Robin complained even as the other Titans were busy pulling people from collapsed buildings or fending off looters.

"We need to get the fires under control." Sheila thought carefully. It was just being so hard. _She's not Wonder Girl,_ she heard. "There's a telepath here." In a blur, she took off towards the epicenter where four, fearsome figures were overlooking Chemo.

"Wonder Girl!" Mammoth shouted, charging the blonde girl in the red and gold outfit.

"You idiot! That's not Wonder Girl!" Psimon shouted.

"She's _not?_" Jinx asked in surprise even as 'Wonder Girl' dodged her mystical bolt.

"Just crush her already!" Shimmer shouted.

"RAAAAARGH!" Mammoth bellowed as he swung at Sheila, smashing the ground to pieces.

"This might hurt," she said, jabbing her knife hand into his arm, then kicked him in his back.

With a scream of pain, the hirsute brute collapsed in pain from the pinched nerves.

"You don't fight like her at all!" Shimmer said.

"No reason to when Psimon knows I'm not her," Sheila replied as she cartwheeled away from the transmuter before she could close.

"Stop thinking so much!" Psimon shouted as he blasted at her mentally. "God dammit. Quit thinking of nine different ways to counter me!"

"Ah, you are Sheila pretending to be Wonder Girl," Jinx said with a smirk. "I hope that causes you to fight it out later." She sent out a wave of vapor.

"Actually, I asked permission, thanks. A poultice of malice? Nasty," Sheila replied as she suddenly charged Shimmer in a blur, tossing her at the vapor.

With a shriek, Shimmer dissolved the mist before it could affect her. "Oh, you bitch. I'm going to turn you into glass and crush you-"

"Shimmer, it hurts. It really hurts," Mammoth cried into his beard where he lay trembling on the ground.

"You have a little knowledge of the mystical?" Jinx asked as she blasted a few more mystical blasts to keep Sheila at bay.

"Um, yeah. You could say that," Sheila said as she suddenly threw out her hand in a gesture. "The hand that heals is the hand that can harm."

Jinx cried out in pain as bruises suddenly appeared all over her body, blessed darkness welcoming her.

Psimon stopped at that. "You can heal or harm?" he suddenly asked worriedly. Her silent thoughts on the different, gruesome ways that she _could_ hurt or maim him with her powers actually prompted a very strange reaction. "I surrender."

"Say _what?_" Shimmer asked just before three rocks bounced off her forehead in a staccato burst, knocking her out.

"Just kidding," Psimon said with a nasty smile as he tried to psi-blast her again and knocking over a wall that was barely standing.

Robin's staff to the back of his head was a complete surprise, knocking him out. "He was way too focused on fighting you and left himself open." He was standing in a shadowed area even while he tried to bring up his communicator so they could send people capture the remainder of the Fatal Five.

"Guess it's hard reading nine thoughts at a time," Sheila said conversationally. What they needed to do was get the people of Blűdhaven working together to help, as hard as that was to do.

"I'm sure it was more of reading nine super-genius thoughts, actually. I heard you gave Martian Manhunter a headache, and that's a hard thing to do." Robin had to shake his head. He was used to being the smartest one around and having someone like Sheila around had forced him to revise what 'smart' was.

* * *

><p>The blood on her hands would not come off, Sheila noted to herself. How had it come to this? She had left Blűdhaven that morning and then come to this tower later that day as the sky itself showed the madness of someone seeking the primordial power of creation.<p>

Worlds had been smashed together as a young Lex Luthor attempted to fix reality. And Superboy-Prime had returned to protect this tower that was at the heart of the matter.

Cassie's sobs drifted across the arctic snows. How was she going to deal with it?

How was the her of this world going to deal with the death of Conner Kent, Superboy? The young man that had been created from human and kryptonian DNA. And died a hero.

Sheila shied away from the thought, but with innate stubbornness turned to look at the ruins of the anti-matter reality manipulation device. Superboy-Prime had been overwhelming in his power. Her own shoulder was barely healing and would probably require some surgery to reset in the future.

Superboy was dead.

He was a hero, allowing himself to be beaten to death and smashing through the exotic energies of Anti-Monitor tower with Superboy-Prime.

Powergirl tried put her hand on Cassie's shoulder, but the sobbing girl shrugged it off as she sobbed furiously. She held onto Conner's cooling body frantically.

Sheila grabbed her tightly, crying along with her at the loss of her 'sister's' love. Around her, Batman, Wonder Woman and two Supermen watched the two grieve.

Twenty minutes later, Cassie had finally let Sheila pull her from Conner so that he could be wrapped up. Powergirl donated her cape.

All that was left was the aftermath and the clean up.

* * *

><strong>One Year Later<strong>

Cyborg awoke himself from his technological healing, unsure of what was going on. He was home, he could feel that. The Titans Tower lab was a familiar place to him. It had rebuilt his shattered cybernetic body many times.

He staggered out of the lab and up to the living areas. In the kitchen he found a dusky-skinned kid with horns and Rose Wilson talking as he made a meal while she sharpened a lot of different weapons.

"-hot damn! Cyborg's awake!" Kid Devil called out.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Your turn to feed the swear jar."

"_Ravager!_" Cyborg nearly snarled as he raised his cannon arm.

"He even recognizes me!" Rose Wilson blinked as she realized what she had just said. "Ah, crap. He recognizes me."

"So, that's a good thing, right?" the bare-chested young man asked. "Means his memories are ok?"

"The last time he saw me I was trying to kill Raven," the silver-haired young woman replied as both her eyes opened wide. She rolled away just before a sonic blast from the confused Cyborg nearly took her head off.

"You got your eye back," Cyborg noted as he tried to hit the lithe warrior.

"Well, duh. Nice to see your skills of observation haven't failed." Ravager threw two apples to smash into Cyborg's face.

"Rose, no put-downs on your allies unless they really deserve it, remember?" a young woman's voice said. She was wearing a silver, sleeveless top with the Wonder Woman 'logo' on the front in gold and long dark-blue tights down her legs into a set of black boots. Her hair was glowing like it was made of soft fiber optical cables.

"Wonder Girl? No, you're Sheila," Cyborg said. "Ally? Ravager is-" he asked in confusion.

"-a Titan, yes," Sheila said with a grin. "She was remanded into Titan custody after it was determined that Slade had been drugging and brainwashing her."

"And ol' sawbones saw fit to fix up my eye," Rose said snidely.

"That's because you have a hang-up with your father and it helped to get you past it," she countered the weapons master. "Nice to see you up and about, Cyborg. Wendy and Marvin are going to be upset that you busted the kitchen though."

"Who?" the big black cyborg asked wishing they uploaded a text file on the changes while he was up into his personal cyberspace.

"Couple of 'normal' wunderkids. They tried to pull some twin pranks on me to confuse me with numbers," Sheila said with aplomb just as they entered.

"And failed miserably," Wendy said with a theatrical sigh. "Then we tried to do that with Robin."

"And failed. You guys are just too scary." Marvin just slumped his shoulders. "And you guys busted the kitchen again."

"No, Cyborg did because he was confused about seeing what he thought was an enemy in the Tower," Sheila replied with a smile. "Not the first time. Probably not the last time."

"Where's Robin? Wonder Girl? Beast Boy?" Cyborg asked as he started to become a bit more aware.

"Robin will be here soon. While you were out he'd gone on vacation for a year. Wonder Girl is a bit occupied and isn't a full member right now," Sheila replied casually, walking out of the kitchen. "Beast Boy joined the Doom Patrol."

"Kid Flash? Raven? Superboy?" he asked as they walked down the hall.

"Bart retired and Raven dropped out of sight," Sheila replied. "And Superboy... he died saving the universe." Through the windows, you could see statues of the different, fallen Titans from the team. The most prominent was Superboy in a joyful flying-forward stance.

"So I take it things have been eventful?" Cyborg said. "How long was I out after that jaunt into space?"

"Just a bit. You've been reintegrating your mind in your personal cyberspace for the past year. I did not want to push it any faster, as you _were _recovering. It's been a bit hectic with all the new members coming and going," Sheila said, looking a bit sheepish. "We were missing our glue-members."

"Me. Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and/or Superboy. Well, we'll have to see what we can do about that," the big man said grimly. It kind of reminded him of the last time he was out in space and the Atom, of all people, deaged to a teen lead a group of Titans that lasted about 15 minutes. Though if he had to be honest with himself, Argent did make a great Titan as she stuck around for the next version after that.

"Sheesh, lighten up big guy. No need to rescue the team quite that quickly. You aren't at one hundred percent yet," she replied.

Victor chuckled at that. "Thanks, I think I needed that. So what's happened with you? I would have thought you figured out how to get back to your dimension by now?"

"The local space-time is in a state of quantum fluctuation that has propagated outwards into the adjoining dimensions like a tsunami. Oh, and I ascended."

The cyborg blinked at that last comment. "Ascended to?"

"Goddess," she replied.

"We have a full goddess on our team?" he choked out in surprise.

"I guess the Outsiders are jealous," Sheila said with a roll of her eyes.

Victor just started laughing. "Thanks, I think I needed that, too."

* * *

><p>"Cassie? You here?" a blonde girl asked, her shoulder length hair fluttering as she looked around through her glasses. Mrs. Sandsmark must be out right now. 'This' Sheila looked remarkably normal.<p>

"I don't know why you bother, Sheila." Cassie walked out of the kitchen with her baby girl on cradled carefully.

"Sophia. Sophia Harris! You know I'm partly responsible for the rug-rat. If I hadn't blessed you both with the standard... you know, _godly _fertility blessing on couples, the chances of you having a kid from one night are pretty small," 'Sophia' said. "So I'm pitching in to help out. And it allows me to work on my medical thesis paper on deciphering the AIDS virus."

"Clara is everything to me, you know that. She's all I have of Conner," she replied. "Even mom couldn't be unhappy with me too long."

"I'm sorry, you had sex with the man you loved because you thought the world might end. It's a normal response in the situation." There was more than a bit of wistfulness in her tone.

Clara gurgled and tried to look around. Cassie looked down on her with such a soft smile it could bring tears to your eyes. "You be good for Auntie Sophia."

"Off to the Titans for a few hours? They are working on tracking down the Brotherhood of Evil (which that is a really lame name, by the way.) Oh, well. Tell the other me hi," Sophia said as she picked up her god daughter.

"What else are you up to right now?"

"Oh, a few things. Checking out a women's shelter, being a rockstar, and working on tracking down Mary Marvel. She thinks she's been abandoned by her Gods. And no way am I letting her down." Sophia shrugged.

"Rock star?" Cassie asked as she removed her over clothes to reveal her Wonder Girl T-shirt beneath it.

"Eh, I've been meaning to work on the arts a bit," was the lukewarm reply. "Coochie-coo." The baby just looked confused. "How is Clark handling Clara?"

"He always goes on about being disappointed in us for not waiting," Cassie said angrily, causing a frown to appear on her baby from the angry noise. "Oh, sorry baby."

"Go on. The Titans need you right now," Sophia said. After Cassie had flown out the back door, she turned her gaze back onto the girl. "So, are you ready to be a good girl while I work on my thesis?"

A squeal of a giggle did not lend her much hope.

"Cassie?" Helena Sandsmark called out.

"Sorry, you just missed her," Sophia called out from the living room couch. The computer in front of her was writing rapidly while she played with the baby.

"How's my granddaughter?" Helena asked.

"Being pretty calm. Not bad for three months old, eh?" Sophia said.

Helena shook her head slowly. "I don't understand how you have the time to help with all the things you do," she finally said.

"It's just a matter of multi-tasking efficiently." Behind her eyes, you could almost swear you could hear the beat of a drum as a young girl walked onto the stage with her band.

* * *

><p>Cassie walked into the Titans Tower.<p>

"Great. Wonder Bitch is here," Rose complained, looking over at the newest arrival, causing Robin to sigh.

"Rose," Cyborg called out.

"I heard you have a lead on the Brotherhood?" Wonder Girl asked, putting her angrily clenched fists on her hips.

"Cassie!" Sheila called out, giving her a quick hug and a roll of her eyes at Ravager.

Rose just snarled silently.

"I want these guys," Wonder Girl said with a hard tone. "They were part of it. Part of the cause of Superboy's death."

"Meow. Hiss. Oh, I'm so sad that my boyfriend died," Rose said, causing Devil Boy to wince behind her.

"Ack! Cassie! Not worth it!" Sheila said, trying to hold back her other self.

"Let me go! I'll teach her-"

"That's enough! Ravager. Kid Devil." Cyborg looked very serious as he stepped between Cassie and Rose. "Give the Titans a minute." After the two left, he turned to the remaining Titans.

And found himself looking at a very, very angry Sheila. "Way to destroy their 'credibility' to the team. They are just as much Titans as anyone else. I'll be back. You can let me know when the Titans need us."

She slammed the door behind her.

"You screwed up, Vic," Robin said softly. "Sheila's been working at getting them to be better and on the team. And you just destroyed weeks of work."

"Damn, that isn't what I meant." The Cyborg looked frustrated. "I was just trying to defuse the situation."

"I may not like Rose, but she's been here more than me." Cassie shrugged.

"Why's that? You don't seem to have a problem with the team," Vic asked, narrowing his one dark-brown eye.

"Family. I... just can't go into it, okay? It's important."

* * *

><p>Sheila found Rose and Eddie up in his room. And it looked like they had been talking for a bit.<p>

"You don't understand. Slade. He's out there, waiting for me. He'll pump me so full of super-serum again that I'll do anything for him. Even cut out my eye again." Real terror was laying below her blue eyes. Rose was truly scared of her father. And how on his drugs she'd once more become a puppet for his schemes.

"They aren't going to kick you out," Eddie said sincerely. "Nightwing told Robin you had to be here."

"But no one _wants_ me here," Rose said sadly, dropping her gaze.

"I do, Rose," Kid Devil promised.

"You're such a freak," Ravager said with a soft smile, then took a toke of her cigarette.

"I kind of like having you around too, Rose." Sheila was leaning against the door frame.

"Spying for your sister again?" Rose snapped out, turning away.

"She doesn't need me for that. Look, Rose, I don't have Wonder Girl's hangups with you. And I let Cyborg know that I wasn't happy with the way he treated you." Sheila walked over, her glowing hair lighting up the dark room slightly.

"Because that means you'll have failed to shrink my head," the silver-haired young woman snorted.

"Only sorta. I also see someone that's thrown herself in the way of danger to save her team mates, too. And someone I think wants a friend or two." Sheila will shrug.

"Bullshit. You're not- Why don't you prove that you aren't some stuck in the mud bitch that's better than everyone!" Rose shouted, getting right into Sheila's face.

The goddess's face flushed in anger and then in a totally surprising move, used both hands to grab her cheeks and pull Rose into a kiss.

"What the hell?" Eddie shouted as as his tail stood out straight.

"How's that?" Sheila snapped angrily.

"You kissed me." Rose looked shocked. "I mean, you really kissed me. I can't even get Robin to notice me and you kissed me."

"He doesn't notice me either," Sheila fumed. From what she'd learned the various side kicks present and former of Batman all had problems like that.

"You are, what? Attracted to both of us?" Rose's brain was starting to engage.

"I dunno. I've never even dated before. And have you read some of the things my relatives have done?" She just slumped.

"Um, point." Rose blinked, then shrugged. "Sure, why not. We can figure this shit out as we go."

Red Devil wondered what made the Robins into chick magnets. 'Jason never said anything about that,' Eddie mused thinking about his pen pal. 'And isn't he back from the dead or something?'

* * *

><p>"It appears we have stayed overlong, my friends," Plasmus said as the Brotherhood of Evil turned to the Titans that had just arrived.<p>

Cyborg was in front, while Sheila and Wonder Girl were on either side. Robin, Kid Devil and Ravager were behind them, ready to flank at a moments notice on the New York night street.

Elephant Man bellowed even as Wonder Girl flew forward and decked the elephatine superhuman onto his back.

"Sacre bleu! Wonder Girl has become incredibly strong!" Warp exclaimed. The yellow-clad Frenchman seemed flummoxed at how easily the honorary Amazon was handling the giant.

"Hi!" Sheila said to Warp as she appeared next to him in a blur. With a single punch, she sent him skidding down the street. "There goes their escape ticket."

"Nasty, glowy hair is so ugly!" Goldilocks said as she sent out some of her hair that Sheila bounced away from in a cartwheel.

"You have got to be kidding me," she retorted. "At least I'm not using my hair as a weapon."

"Oh, it's Robin! Just like the Brain promised! Why are you interfering?" the young looking girl with attack hair asked. She lashed out at him.

Robin was not nearly so quick, as his bo-staff fared very poorly and he was quickly tied up.

Ravager was there in a flash. "You owe me one, Boy Wonder!" she crowed her her sword cut the hair.

He just smirked back. He also made a mental note to put a fold out machete in his utility belt.

Sheila, Wonder Girl and Cyborg were all piling on the Elephant Man, who was proving quite resilient.

"Oh no you don't. We just got him back!" Sheila exclaimed, grabbing the huge wrist to wrestle with it to stop him from hitting Cyborg. She really hadn't forgotten it, but the elephant trunk seemed to come out of nowhere knocked her silly for just a second. His foot lashed out, sending her rocketing away through an empty bus.

"Sheila!" Cassie cried out, lashing out with her full strength again, sending the man-beast reeling. A crackling lightning bolt formed in her hand.

"How very Greek," Goldilocks called it with an insane looking smile as she attempted to snare Ravager and Robin again.

"That's my dad," Wonder Girl said with a tight grin as she threw the bolt at the Elephant Man as he was standing up, blasting him back down.

Kid Devil started screaming in agony as Plasmus melted open his chest and left him venting liquid fire. The pained screams of agony caused all of the heroes to move to help him.

Warp reappeared. "I took care of Sheila. I left her on an island in the Atlantic."

"Then it is time to depart," Plasmus called out. The four members of the Brotherhood of Evil disappeared in a flash of light.

"I don't know what to do. It's too much," Wonder Girl called out, trying to heal the damage. But other than checking Clara's health, she had not expanded her healing much. In fact, she had actually let it lapse a little.

"Step aside, Titans. This is a job for the the Doom Patrol," a man in a wheel chair called out. At his side was Beast Boy, Elasti-Girl, Robotman, Vox and Negative Man.

"Sheila, where are you?" Robin asked on the Titan's communicator.

"About two minutes away." Sheila was running across the waves, heading back to New York as fast as possible. Which was very, very fast at MACH 3.

"Too long." Robin decided then, that they would have to hope that the Doom Patrol would be able to help Kid Devil.

* * *

><p>Robin and Sheila were watching as the Chief and Elasti-Girl worked on fixing up Kid Devil in the creepy basement surgery in the Doom Patrol's base in Prague.<p>

"Hmm. He's not too bad." Sheila was evaluating his surgery skills. Once she had made it back to the group, she had decided to continue to let the Chief work his medical miracles.

"So why didn't you just heal him up?" Robin asked curiously.

"Pain is the best teacher for mistakes," she replied. "And I did not want to insult them by not letting them help. Hmm..."

The two watched until Robin's cell phone beeped. Sheila just raised an eyebrow at that.

"You there! My instruments are very sensitive to radio signal! Please leave this area!" the Chief suddenly cried out.

Robin backed off, taking the call while Sheila continued to listen. Her hackles were rising as she listened. It appeared the Chief was messing with the Doom Patrol's minds. Sadly, it appeared it was to make him needed in a codependent relationship with his team. Sheila's expression then turned dark as she recalled tales that Chief caused the accidents that created the original trio of the Doom Patrol.

When Sheila and Robin caught up with their team-mates just minutes later, Robin tried to tell his old friend. "Beast Boy, something is going on," Robin tried to explain. "Something isn't right about the Chief."

"I was afraid you would do this. We're a family." Beast Boy was starting off by being defensive.

Sheila just shook her head, when Wonder Girl interrupted. "We need to be after the Brotherhood! They need to be brought in for what they did in Bludhaven and-"

"-for being part of what killed Superboy," Sheila said in a soft tone. "That's vengeance talking, Cassie, not justice."

"Then maybe I need vengeance," the Amazon said with a hard glare.

Beast Boy nodded slowly even as the rest of the Doom Patrol looked on uncomfortably.

The Negative Man reappeared suddenly, slamming back into his bandaged body. "We've found them, but there's not much time."

* * *

><p>The appearance of The Brain in a human body was quite shocking to everyone but Robin and Sheila during their fight in the sewers of Paris. They had suspected that the Brotherhood was going to clone someone. Why kidnap cloners and their research, right?<p>

"Would you like to surrender for medical assistance?" Sheila asked curiously.

All of the heroes and villains stopped their standoff to stare at her.

"You do know that your body is unstable will start dying in just five more minutes?" she asked.

Wonder Girl narrowed here eyes, then blinked in surprise. "She's right. You have, well... lots of genetic defects."

Robin looked at Sheila in total surprise. "You can see that sort of condition?"

"Of course. After I missed that degradation on Superboy, I've been more careful," the goddess replied. "And I showed Wonder Girl how to see it too."

"Preposterous," Gemini exclaimed. "You can't detect genetic faults with eyesight."

"Because it would break the laws of science. Because magic... can't be real," Sheila replied in a sarcastic tone.

Mallah looked uncertainly at The Brain. "Is what she says true? Can she see medical problems?"

"Yes." The Brain looked at Sheila and Wonder Girl. "But they are lying. My plans are foolproof." He fired a pistol that blasted out with the force of an artillery shell.

Sheila disappeared in a blur as the rest of the Titans and Doom Patrol resumed their attacks on the Brotherhood. "You're a fool, Brain."

"No, I am just trying to save my fellows from the depredations of the Chief. Did you know who was supposed to be the first recipient of the Robot Man body? It was not that cretin over here, but myself." He shot his buck-rogers looking pistol into the ground, only to see Sheila spin through the air to land perfectly in front of him.

"Sounds about right, actually." Sheila ignored Beast Boy's frustration and the other Doom Patrol's incredulity. "But doing it your way is not right."

"What the hell? You can't accuse the Chief like that!" Robot Man exclaimed angrily.

"Yes, she can. And from what I heard, she's probably right." Robin's glared was a perfect counter to Beast Boy's.

"It's starting," Sheila called out, even as she ducked under Elephant Man's massive fists _and_ trunk. "Hey! How tough are you under that skin?"

The huge entity looked confused.

"Let's find out!" Sheila held up a hand and the gestured.

The huge monster-man bellowed in rage, then coughed up some blood.

"Pretty tough, but that looks like it took the wind out of your sails anyways," she replied with a smirk.

That was when Wonder Girl moved in and pummeled Elephant Man again, smashing him down... and finally out.

The Brain looked down at his calcifying hand. "No, it was perfect."

"What should I do, Brain?" Monsieur Mallah asked, his great hulking ape form ready for anything.

"Climb," Brain begged. "You can climb."

And with that, Monsieur Mallah climbed up the Eiffel Tower with superhuman ape agility and strength.

"All I wanted-" the Brain started to say at the top, as dawn was cracking.

Sheila's fist thumped down on Mallah's head, knocking out the Simian. With a triple flip, she landed on the catwalk.

"Have you come to gloat?" Brain asked angrily, spittle and drool escaping his decaying flesh.

"No, but I do not think I will help you either." Her blue-green eyes stared at him hard. "I believe in the courts and justice, Brain. But there is no law stating that I have to help a genocidal monster that helped murder a city."

It was only two minutes later that Brain expired, scrabbling fitfully as his organs gave out. Sheila spent the time binding Monsieur Mallah, as the ape would probably go insane for having failed to save his lover.

Wonder Girl flew up with Robin and Ravager in her hands. "Mallah and the Brain?"

"Mallah is unconscious. It seems the Brain expired when his new body failed." Sheila shrugged even as the lift opened. Robot Man, Cyborg and Vox all exited.

Beast Boy transformed from a small hawk to land on the ground. "Can we save him?"

Robot Man nodded warily. "We should try, to show that we are better than him."

"I won't help. He's murdered too many people," Sheila said, shocking Robin.

"What? We're heroes-" he started to say.

"He was hoisted by his own hubris," Wonder Girl said. "I agree with Sheila. Just because we are heroes doesn't mean we have to save the villains every time from their stupidity."

"Think they'll be any villains left if we keep doing that?" Rose remarked. "I think most of them count on that to save their asses."

Garth's green skin was flushed in anger, but he actually kept his mouth shut.

* * *

><p>"But the Doom Patrol will accept you. I will accept you... like a son," the Chief was explaining to Devil Kid as they left the Negative Man's chambers. He had just changed the special bandages and was wheeling along in his wheel-chair smartly.<p>

"Chief?" Garth exclaimed loudly.

"What is this, high school?" Cyborg complained to Robot Man.

"Wow, what a pack of lies," Sheila observed candidly with the rest of the two teams. She had timed this just right so that they would all hear him trying convince Eddie to join the Doom Patrol because the Teen Titans would not 'like' him. "Eddie, have I ever lied to you? Or even said bad things behind anyone's back?"

Kid Devil stopped at that. "No, never. Heck, you even chew me and Ravager out for doing it."

"You aren't much of a team leader, Sheila. You are the too-perfect goddess, untouchable and sacrosanct-"

"You are right, I'm not the team leader. Robin's the team leader. I just support him." Her fists were clenched very tightly.

"I knew that Robin and Sheila were right about you," Ravager said with a nod.

"Chief, this isn't what we are or what we do." Beast Boy seemed genuinely upset.

"We're outcasts, Garth. They will never understand Kid Devil like we do. They won't help him with his issues like us." The Chief was quite impassioned as he talked.

"You sound like he's broken. You know, you are everything I fear to become. Domineering, instead of supportive. Codependent instead of helpful. Everything I could do if I thought my way was the only, better way," Sheila hissed out.

"Sheila... let it go. I think everyone sees what he is doing." Wonder Girl had her hand on her 'sister's' shoulder.

"Yes, I think we do," Steve Dayton, Mento of the Doom Patrol, said in a grim voice. "And I think that is enough." His mental amplifier helmet was off and held at his hip. "I'm thinking a lot more clearly for some reason."

"But-" The Chief looked around, seeing a lot of very angry people. "I'll be in my lab."

Sheila let Robin and Beast Boy patch up their friendship while she walked a little ways away. The shadows in the odd, Escher-esque castle seemed oddly appropriate for her mood.

"You want to talk about it?" Ravager asked.

Sheila shrugged. "It's part of being smarter than just about everyone. You keep thinking, why don't they just do the smart thing? Or the 'correct' thing? Then it's only a few steps from making them do the smart thing. It's an impulse that I have to beat down."

"So you think everyone is stupid?" Rose asked in a hard tone.

"Do you think Beast Boy is dumb? Or just not as smart as you?" she shot back. "Sorry, it's a touchy subject to me."

Ravager looked over at the shapechanger with green skin. "No, I don't think he's dumb. And yeah, I can see how that could be irritating."

"Do you think I'm silly for being hung up on my smarts?" Sheila asked curiously.

"Nah, it's one of your superpowers. That would be like you asking me to not use my precog in fighting. It's just you." Ravager seemed to consider things for a long time. "So you are scared of becoming a dictator like the Chief was doing? Manipulating everyone to do what you think is right?"

"Yeah. It'd be easy."

"So then it's a good thing you have morals, too," the silver-haired martial artist said with a chuckle. "You wanna go swimming when we get back to the tower?"

"Sure." Sheila walked back to the group then. "Bumblebee? Vox? If you ever need a second opinion on medical matters, feel free to drop in."

"Sure!" the diminutive flyer called out.

Vox just nodded.

* * *

><p>Rose walked back to the pool after letting Eddie know that she was there if he wanted to hang out. "Poor guy. It looks like Blue Devil couldn't make the time to call or show up."<p>

"Jerk." Sheila seemed consider it as she floated in the water. "Hey, Eddie? Should we take a road trip to go beat up Blue Devil?"

"What?" Rose and Eddie exclaimed.

"Okay, maybe not beat up. How about scold severely?" she asked with a grin. "Or toilet paper his house?"

Rose seemed to think it over. "What do you think, Eddie?"

"Hell yeah. Why not?" He walked over. "Have to admit, I'm tempted to just sit here and watch you two swim."

"Sounds like he's recovering, Rose." Sheila was showing off her dimples as she laughed.

"Nah, he's just a boy."

Sheila got out of the pool, getting a whistle from Rose and Eddie for her one-piece swimsuit. "I don't think boys have a monopoly on hormones."

"That sounds like you are talking from experience, Sheila," Rose called back with a laugh.

"Of course. Hey, let me go change into civvies and I'll meet you out front." She headed down to her room. She stopped to think. Which one of her should she 'borrow.' Well, she just left babysitting Clara after Cassie had arrived at her home. Between one step and another, she disappeared from Washington D.C. Sheila then recreated that psycholocation of the other her in the Titan's Tower. The new, 'normal' looking Sheila waved her hand in front of her face, releasing her immortal visage.

"You are going to check out Robin?" the newly arrived Sheila asked.

"Or you can, instead of accompanying Eddie and Rose," the preexisting Sheila said.

They both giggled then, splitting up. After all, it did not matter which one went. They were all part of her mentality and existence. With both aware that her ability was probably the only super power Batman would desire.

So while Sheila left with Rose and Eddie, Sheila also walked down into Robin's 'secret' lair to see him lash out when he subconsciously detected that he was being watched.

"Robin," the young goddess asked worriedly as he knelt there in the remains of a failed clone of Conner Kent; Superboy.

"I've lost so much," he started to say, tears streaming down under his mask. "Is it so bad that I want my best friend back?"

"It's hurting you, Robin. And that won't be Conner. That will just be something that only thinks its him. Just like if Luthor's plan had worked, Conner would have thought he was Superman." She crouched down by him. "Would Conner want you to hurt yourself? Or would he want you to live?"

"How did Cassie get over him?" Robin asked.

"Tim, she isn't over him. Every day for the last eight months she's been thinking of him. She never wants to forget, but she wants to remember him and their love," Sheila said, carefully laying her left hand on his caped shoulder.

Tim's kiss was sudden and surprising. And for once, Sheila didn't know what to do except... kiss. Damn her hormones and the fact that she found him attractive.

When they broke apart, the young goddess narrowed her eyes. "If we are going to be anything, it has to be more than over this problem," she said, waving her hand over the destroyed laboratory.

"Why didn't you ever offer to help? You must have known what was going on," Robin finally asked.

With a sigh, Sheila disappeared in a blur and then reappeared with some brooms, garbage cans and other cleaning supplies. "Why didn't you ask?"

That stopped the young man. "I guess I felt you wouldn't approve."

"Which is true, but that isn't the only reason I bet." She started to mop up the viscous cloning fluids.

He grimaced. "I guess I didn't want to confirm that thought."

"Where do you stop, Robin?"

Robin frowned as he continued to sweep the glass fragments and papers. "What do you mean?"

"Do you clone Jericho? Terra? Your father? I'm sorry, that was too much and I shouldn't have said that. Why only Conner?" she asked, trying to project that she sincerely cared.

"I never thought about it that way. Why shouldn't I bring them all back if possible?" he countered. Though he wasn't sure the first Terra needed to come back from the dead.

"And then share virtual immortality to the whole world? It's going to get crowded. Then you have the problem of the law. Is it murder to kill a clone? Do they get everything their progenitor has? What if they are both still alive? Or multiple clones?" She started to put the papers back in their binders and carefully started to reorganize the work.

Robin blinked as he started to think. "So how do we get Conner back?"

Sheila frowned. "By trying something rather impossible. We have to find a way into the Kryptonian underworld."

"And why is that impossible?" Robin demanded, starting to get angry.

"Because it would be through Krypton."

"Oh." His tears were starting to dry, but his eyes were still reddened. And he doubted the loose clustered together clump of Kryptonite asteroids in that system would work for their quest.

Sheila put the mop and bucket to the side. "Robin, do you have anyone to talk to?"

"No, Batman really isn't good on the personal loss issues and... I just don't have anyone." His shoulder's slumped as he admitted it.

They hugged then. "You have the Titans. Even Rose, though I think she wants to try to get into your pants," Sheila finally said as they released their grips.

"Considering I caught her in my bed a few days ago, that's not exactly news," he replied with a soft chuckle.

"I'm not surprised. I'm torn between jealousy and wondering if I could have joined? And I just said that out loud didn't I? I can't believe-" Sheila started to babble.

"Um, so sparks?" Robin asked as he held a finger to her lips for a second.

"Yeah. I don't get it, but I'm really finding myself attracted to both of you. I hope I'm not turning into some slut just because I'm young and have hormones," she complained.

Robin just looked shocked, then bemused. "No, I think it just makes you human."

"Really?" Sheila looked incredibly happy right then.

"Really." Tim then snorted thinking about the look on Conner's face if he found this out. And for the first time in a year it wasn't painful thinking about his best friend.

* * *

><p>"Why are you replacing us?" Rose cried out to the rest of the team in the parlor.<p>

"Melodramatic much?" Sheila asked.

"We aren't replacing you, Eddie," Cassie said with a smirk.

"Not helping, Cassie. Can you please not needle Rose?" her dimensional doppelganger asked in frustration. "Otherwise I'm not going to help you tomorrow and you'll have to find someone else."

"Okay! Okay! I'll be nice," Wonder Girl said.

"How the hell did you-? You are holding something over on her," Rose exclaimed.

"Yes, but not what you are expecting," was Sheila's saucy reply.

"This isn't about you," Cyborg explained. "It's about Raven. I was going through the security feeds like Garth mentioned and it seems Raven is in trouble. And its Titan troubles that she felt that she could not bring up."

"So where was the last time that we had heard from her?" Robin asked seriously.

The answer to that was in Moscow.

"I hate snow," Eddie complained as they skulked down a back alley of the city.

"You'll hate a Russian prison worse, Kid Devil," Sheila replied. "I'm the only one with a Super Power Visa."

"So we're trespassing illegally into the country using the T-Jet because Leonid, Red Star, doesn't answer his phone?" Wonder Girl asked in a complaining tone.

"That's essentially it," Cyborg admitted.

"And you guys did not want to wait for me to talk to him. Oh well." Sheila narrowed her eyes. "Looks like he's finished mopping up the Meta-Men Militia."

"Leonid," Cyborg called out. "We've been trying to contact you."

"Victor? I've been engaged against my enemies." He took in all of the Titans. "You are looking better."

"We're looking for Raven and understand she talked to you a week ago," Robin said as he pulled his cape around him tighter.

"Yes. Fortunately, she left." Red Star seemed upset by their appearance.

"What?" Cyborg exclaimed.

"This area is too exposed. Gather around me and I will teleport us to my ship so that I am not forced to arrest all of you for illegal entry into the country."

"I do happen to have a Super Power Visa, Leonid. Even if they wouldn't allow me into the country during your invasion," Sheila reminded him.

As they gathered around, Red Star nodded. In a flash, the disappeared and reappeared in a high tech teleport room. Ravager made her unhappiness with the mode of transport immediately evident, dropping to her knees and then puking.

Sheila knelt down next to her. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, just gave me a really bad case of vertigo," the swordswoman said.

"You should probably check the Themotar Coil. It's two tetrahertz out of tune which is causing inner ear vibrations," Sheila called out even as she helped Rose up.

"I'm not sure what you see in her," Wonder Girl muttered. Then she sighed.

"Why are you on my case, Wonder Girl?" Ravager snapped out, then clutched her stomach.

"I just think Sheila could do better."

They were getting nose to nose and ready for a fist fight when Sheila and Leonid stepped in. Sheila physically interposed between them while Leonid just spoke.

"You should quit." The hugely muscled Russian seeemed quite calm.

"What?" Ravager and Wonder Girl shouted.

"You should quit being Titans. You can't even walk down the hall without fighting," he continued.

Sheila whispered to both of them, "I'm very upset at both of you right now."

Both of them got stubborn looks, even as Leonid continued with his story and the fact that the Titans for heroes like them left him nothing.

"That's not true, Red Star. Like any relationship or group, you have to make it work. It takes effort and caring," Sheila countered.

"Tell that to Wildbeast, Terra and Superboy-" Red Star said when Wonder Girl stomped forward and lifted him up with one hand that bunched up his shirt near his neck.

"Don't you dare throw that in our faces," Wonder Girl said, pulling back her fist for an electrified-enhanced punch.

"Where will you be afterwards?" he asked back, showing a bit of surprise.

"With my family. And that includes the Titans," she replied.

"Not for Titans like me. Raven was here, asking questions." Leonid straightened his shirt top, then walked over to one of the many high tech consoles to pick up a piece of paper. "Here is her address in Bejing. You know where the teleporters are."

"Jerk," Ravager said, getting Eddie's nod in agreement. Robin only smiled slightly behind her.

* * *

><p>The information in Bejing they found had led them to Las Vegas.<p>

"Just so people are aware, Zatara did not part on good terms." Sheila gave Kid Devil a hard look.

"It wasn't my fault that we got stuck in Azeroth for two weeks and nearly eaten by the Phantasm," he protested. "And you had quit the team for that week."

"I had family matters that came up." Sheila specifically did not look over at Cassie at that point. That was the week Cassie had given birth to Clara. Everyone had been there. Even Clark and Lois had managed to make time to be there.

Robin nodded as he started to put things together in his head. They charmed their way into Zatara's back room. In between shows, he went back to cool off and had a very rude surprise.

"I apologize, Zatara, but we really did need to talk to you," Sheila said as he walked in. "We need to track down Raven."

"She's not here." He had a smug look on his face that just about set off Ravager and Wonder Girl.

"We know that," Cyborg said carefully. "But we think she's in trouble and needs help."

"Please, don't punish her for your anger at us. She could be in real trouble," Sheila said as she tried to convey how serious they felt on this.

"So now you care?" the stage magician snapped out.

"We aren't perfect, Zatara. Even if we try very hard." She looked off into the distance. "Even the best intentions can... complicate your friend's lives."

Zatara looked over at the picture on the mirror. "Fine. I heard she was headed to talk with that green bimbo out in the out back of Australia. I guess Miss Martian decided to go live out in a desert because it felt like home."

Everyone else parted, as Sheila trailed out last. "He's not really that bad, you know."

"Yes, he is. He nearly got me killed." Zatara's lip was curled up in anger in memory of what had happened with Devil Boy. "Not that Miss Martian was much better."

Sheila just shook her head in sadness.

* * *

><p>"Sorry, I couldn't and wouldn't say. I have a strict no mind-reading policy to good people," Miss Martian was saying after they tracked her down to the Brisbane in Australia. She had just finished her defeat of a minor hoodlum that used power armor and a high tech rifle in his random crimes.<p>

"So you don't know who the traitor is?" Robin asked as he narrowed his eyes behind his domino mask.

"No, the only person I really 'path with is Sheila. And that's just because she's trying to learn telepathic techniques," the green-skinned, red-haired girl said with a totally sunny smile.

Robin nodded at that.

"Why did she leave the group?" Cyborg asked Sheila. The Martian girl seemed pretty nice and pleasant to be around to him.

"As much as I tried without the glue members, people came and went weekly basis. Megan didn't like all the fighting that was going on," Sheila replied softly. "And people were pretty unpleasant behind their faces." That had been one of the things that drove Sheila to be as upfront about things as possible.

"Oh," Cyborg intelligently stated.

"And you don't even want to know the mess he made," Sheila snarled thinking about Powerboy. She knew he was a New God just by meeting him, and his stalker and dominating feelings toward Supergirl lead to that incident.

The only good that came out of it was Argent learned to use her powers more like a Green Lantern power ring. And she was very tempted to let Talon go through with his ideas on what to do with the battered spy. And of course Power Boy seemed to fall off the face of the Earth after that.

When he reappeared they intended to be ready for him. They would not let that depraved New God spy run free.

"Do I even want to know who she is talking about," Cyborg whispered to Robin. The Boy Wonder shook his head. He honestly hoped Powerboy stayed gone from what he'd read about him.

They then headed out in the T-Jet to their next rendevouz to track down Bombshell, supposedly the next ex-Titan on Raven's list. With Cyborg wondering if Booster Gold was going to get a teen side kick or have someone emulating him at this rate.

The Teen Titans jumped into the fight of Bombshell against some Nazi, sending them into the dark Pacific ocean fairly easily.

"Actual Nazi? Not Neo-Nazi?" Sheila asked as they flew down to land on an aircraft carrier. "That's... odd."

"Odd?" Bombshell asked in confusion.

"It's seventy years after World War II, you know. In my home reality the only Nazi left are the ones in prison. Or died of old age because they'd be ninety years old or so." The Goddess of Excellence and Battle just shook her head.

"I always forget you aren't from this world," Robin said as he stepped out of the T-Jet in front of the others. "You just seem to know so much."

"That's because she studies an awful lot," Wonder Girl noted.

"I don't get how she can be surprised by that when the founders of the JSA that are still around and kicking are that old too," Cyborg remarked.

"Yes, but they are not part of a political movement of a country that was wiped out of existence," she countered. "We had Neo-Nazi and all that entails (damn bigots) but actual Nazi are a historical oddity."

"You're world is odd," Rose said as she shook her long, silver-haired head around.

Sheila just gave her a shrug.

"So you are looking for a traitor? Raven and I had been talking just last night about it," Bombshell explained. "I had been working with her undercover to discover the agent. We spent weeks tracking them with government satellites."

"Cool," Devil Boy said inanely.

"We got our proof just last night." Bombshell declared as she talked directly to Cyborg. "It was someone who was a Titan while you were offline."

"Who is it?" Wonder Girl demanded.

"Isn't it obvious? It's Ravager, the daughter of Deathstroke!" Bombshell declared while pointing her gloved finger at the silver-haired girl.

"Me?" Rose asked with an angry look. "Are you crazy?"

"No, but you were..." Bombshell said with a smirk which made Rose's blood boil.

Rose suddenly leaped at her, drawing her two swords. "Don't point at me!"

"Rose!" Sheila called out, intercepting her hold her close up against her chest, but not capturing her arms.

"I think that proves the point, Miss Wilson, doesn't it?" the silver-skinned woman said with a smirk.

"I didn't do it. What would I want with a stupid book of the Titan's secret identities?" the armored figure demanded, but did not break out of Sheila's grasp.

"It's worth a lot of money. And your father could sell it to Two-Face, Scarecrow and the Joker easily." Bombshell had her hands out as if Ravager was not armed and dangerous and on a trigger.

"I wouldn't do that to you, Robin. Or any of you. Not even Wonder Girl," Rose argued.

"No, she wouldn't. You better have some proof of your accusation, Bombshell." Sheila remembered all too well that Rose and Amy Allen had never gotten on well on the team. Like oil and water, except on fire most of the time.

Bombshell paused for just a second. "I'm just saying, we intercepted a call from the Tower a week ago to Deathstroke."

"That wasn't me," Rose protested.

Sheila frowned, as she knew that was a lie. But was it a calculated lie to trip up Rose? There had been no calls out to anyone. Being able to hear radio waves let her know that.

"I'm only looking at facts, Ravager has already tried to kill Raven once," Bombshell declared.

"Going by history, a lot of us have tried to kill each other when under some form of influence," Sheila said as she moved her embrace from holding Rose back to just holding her waist from behind. "I'll want to see the electronic evidence first and cross-reference them with the Titan's logs."

Rose actually relaxed as she caught the hidden meaning of 'listen to what I'm doing, not just what I'm saying. "Besides, electronic records are easy to fake," she noted as she glared at the silver-skinned girl.

"Oh, that's cute. Now you are accusing me of faking records?" the soldier asked angrily.

"That's enough. We need to find Raven," Victor ordered. "You said you talked to her last night? So you know where she is now?"

"She said she needed to do something," the silver hued metahuman replied in a stern tone. "Without telling me why. I hate it when mystics act cryptic."

"This would be so much easier if she had a cell phone we could call," Wonder Girl sighed.

"No kidding," Red Devil muttered.

It suddenly hit Tim Drake where Raven was going. And he had a bad feeling about this. Raven was going to be unhappy with the results no matter what though.

'Robin, Bombshell is lying. I'm not sure if she is trying to get people to reveal themselves as the traitor through a mistake or is the traitor. But we should beware,' Sheila sent telepathically to him. 'She did not like Rose at all, remember.'

Robin just nodded, as if to himself.

They all loaded up into the Quantum Patrol's jet and took off. Robin was going over the books to verify what he had been thinking. "She's got to be in Phoenix. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"Phoenix?" Red Devil asked with a confused expression. "Why would she go there?"

Robin may have been about to reveal something, but that was when Miss Martian appeared.

"I did it! I read their mind! I know who the traitor is!" the green-skinned girl called out mentally as she phased right through the windshield of the modified civilian jet.

A burst of fire hit Miss Martian and her body changed as her skin turned from emerald to bone white. Her body also turned from pleasingly female to more bestial. She screamed in pained panic as Bombshell then launched herself at the White Martian. They smashed out of the airplane and towards the ground.

"Oh shit, Hyperclan," Red Devil gasped even as he tried to hold on for dear life.

"Very good, Bombshell," Sheila remarked dryly. "However as a Martian she has more powers then anyone but me could list off the top of their head, she would have been attacking first. If she wanted to harm us, there is nearly nothing we could do to stop her."

"She does have a point," Cyborg admitted in confusion. "But right now I'm more worried about the fact that we're about to crash. I'm going to try and trigger the T-Jet to pick us up."

"Don't bother," Wonder Girl called out, leaping out the ragged whole. "This isn't that heavy."

"Compared to what!" Rose remarked loudly as she tied on her mask. "A mountain?"

Cassandra Sandsmark was quite true to her words, easily catching the plane.

"Put us down next to St. Sebastion's church over there, Wonder Girl," Robin called out. It was time to end this farce. He gave a nod to Sheila.

They stepped out of the plane as Bombshell dropped the unconscious body of the Martian on the ground. "See, she's in on it. I bet you were hoping that she could distract us from you, Ravager?"

Robin looked over at the alien, then just shook his head. "The problem is, I do know who the traitor is. And it is not Ravager or Miss Martian. I got a bounce back on the virus I put into the fake disk of Jericho. And it came from a US Military address. Not somewhere that Raven would be, would it?"

"What are you saying?" Bombshell demanded with a defiant tone.

"He's saying the jig is up, Bombshell. We know it was you that stole our stalking horse," Sheila called out as she finished strengthening life force of the Titans.

"Well, what do you know? You guys aren't as dumb as I thought you were," the silver-skinned villainess said with a smirk as she unleashed a blast to scramble their brains. "But I've been preparing to take you all out for over half an hour. How's it feel?"

"Like I'm going to break your face," Wonder Girl called out before she hit Bombshell with enough force to make a thirty foot crater.

"What the hell? That should have knocked you all out!" the dented figure said, holding her hand up to her face. "Quantum Soldiers, take them out!"

"You planned, we counter-planned. Cyborg, three sonic frequencies on the 10, 12.445 and 15.097 kilohertz bands!" Sheila called out.

"Whatever you say," Vic called out, blasting the metal-covered girl in soundwaves with his sonic-fist blaster.

Bombshell only had a moment to shriek as the metal on her body exploded from the resonating frequencies. "No! What did you-"

"Good night, Shirley!" Ravager called out as she punched the defenseless girl.

"Remind me to not play chess with you," Eddie told Sheila. "Man, I don't think Batman would try." He finished cracking two of the 'Quantum Soldiers' heads together.

"He might," Robin admitted. In fact, Batman was actually modestly paranoid of Sheila. Her power of supernatural-intelligence and slew of super-powers put her in the top two percentile of world threats he kept track of. And no Kryptonite to deal with her.

Luckily, she was not as physically advanced as a Kryptonian. So there were other recourses. Though Tim wasn't sure anything less then a fuel air bomb would work. And he had a suspicion that she underplayed her powers at times.

He shook his head. "Well, we need to head in. I think we might need to deal with this a little cautiously. Wonder Girl? Cyborg? Let's go," Robin called out.

"And what are we supposed to do?" Ravager demanded.

"They are her friends, Ravager. Okay, guys! Let's tie these soldiers up and call in someone official to find out if we just attacked the US Navy," Sheila called out as she leaned over Miss Martian, healing up her burns as she shapeshifted back into her 'normal' form. "You really weren't that hurt, you know."

The now green-skinned girl nodded. "It's our racial pyrophobia, it sends us into shock. You don't seem to be that worried about me being a White Martian." She had a soft, worried smile about that.

"It's you skin color, not who you are. And you are so nice its tooth-decaying," the goddess noted. "Though you shouldn't really have to hide it. You could just go with that bone-white color and the red hair."

"Really? But so many people hate the white martians," she noted as she started to help tie up the captured soldiers. The Hyperclan and their attempts to take over the world lingered in the memory of the super hero community.

A wind ruffled past as the martian blinked. Had that been Sheila? "What was that?"

"Just a delivery from the Titan's Tower."

"Hey, Sheila. I think Raven is upset at you," Ravager called out as she pointed out the four Titans exiting the church.

"What gave you the right?" the pale-skilled, black-robed girl demanded.

"To protect Jericho from being kidnapped? Robin and I decided to hide his recording and leave out a decoy so that something like this couldn't happen. Did you figure it out? How to create a body from the blood of innocents?" Sheila countered right back. "It wasn't all about you, Raven."

"I just want our family back," she said softly.

"Well, I just so happen to have something here. Did you want to go make his body now?" Sheila asked as she held up a disk. One of her selves had picked it up from where they had hidden it under the statue of Robin II, Jason Todd, in the hall of remembrance.

"It's too late. The time is not correct and it would require a lot more power," Raven said softly as she hid her face in the shadows of her cowl.

"Well, you just so happen to have a lot of power available," Wonder Girl noted. "We'll power this ritual. And then you can teach it to Sheila and I."

All of the Titans followed her into the dilapidated church and the basin filled with magically preserved blood. Raven explained what was needed and what to do.

"Cassie was right, we should be able to do this. Ready?" Sheila said to Cassie.

"Ready!" Wonder Girl said as she felt a tingle in her blood. No, not her blood, but her Ichor.

Kid Devil backed away slightly, feeling his demon-side drawn to the power being raised here. "That's freaky."

"No more than growing my eye back," Rose said with a hard grin as she watched the three of them start to make the blood-pool glow.

Raven tossed in the disk with careful reverence. Within moments a blood covered figure appeared. Robin quickly handed him his cape.

"Good to see you back, Jericho," Cyborg called out as he gave the blood-covered Titan a high-five.

Raven suddenly looked over to the still glowing Wonder Girl. "What is going on?"

The blonde-haired girl was holding up her hand that seemed to be sublimating into glowing sparkles. "Sheila? I don't know-"

"Apotheosis," Sheila explained even as she walked over, her own form exploding into sparkles.

The Titans looked on in shock as the two girl faded out as laughter rang out.

Kid Devil shuddered. "That felt... holy. I don't understand-" His demon self was demanding he either fight or flee.

"The blood has been purified. I almost feel like I can try for my white soul-self," Raven called out as she looked at the clear water that had been blood just a moment ago. Even the church felt lighter... more cleansed.

Sheila and Cassandra reappeared next to Raven. Wonder Girl smiled at her old friend. "So why don't you?" as she held out her hand to grab a hold of her hand.

"But I'm... scared," the reborn daughter of Trigon said in a tiny voice.

"We'll be here with you," they replied in unison.

Robin just stared in shock as the three disappeared for a long moment, before reappearing. Sheila was as she always was, the blue 'Wonder Girl' top with her glowing yellow hair and no bracers and with regular jeans. Wonder Girl was wearing her normal red and gold, sleeveless top and had her bracers on. Her hair seemed to glow with a soft radiance.

And now Raven was in her white robes, a soul-self of white glow within black shadows around her.

"While it seems very neat, I am very confused," Miss Martian called out, a tentative smile on her face.

"Cassie ascended into her god-hood. Or is it just Cassandra now?" Sheila asked her dimensional analog.

"Cassandra. I think of Thunder and Might," Wonder Girl said with a bemused look on her face.. "I'll keep the super-heroine name of Wonder Girl too." At least until she would hand it off to a newer, younger generation.

The Titans crowded around the returned Raven and Jericho.

"Hi, Jericho. I'm Rose Wilson. I guess I'm your sister," Ravager said as she pulled off her mask.

He made some handsigns.

"Sorry, I don't understand that. But I can learn," she said with a smile.

"Or I can just heal it," Sheila interjected. She held up her hand and made a totally nonsensical gesture.

"H-hello," Jericho said shyly. He gave the odd looking girl with glowing hair a grateful look.

"Let's head outside to hand off these Quantum Soldiers and Bombshell to the proper authorities," Robin called out.

"On it," Sheila said with a smile as her other self of Samantha Halls along with Diana Prince were being sent to Phoenix by the Department of Metahuman Affairs. That would make things much easier to handle.

It was only later, as Cassie was whispering to Diana that Sheila realized this might not have been the smartest idea. Robin was looking at Samantha Halls very closely as she talked to Nemesis. He then very casually did not look around as he listened to the agents do their work of arresting them.

* * *

><p>In the computer room of Titan's Tower, Sheila was looking up all she could on the Everyman Project and how it worked. Her otherselves in the right positions to add to the search were doing the same for her. The project made Sheila respect Lex Luthor's genius. And be even more annoyed at how he used it for such petty and narrow minded ends.<p>

And like the Chief she hoped never to end up like him. Or the other version of him they had to deal with a year ago as well. It was then her cell phone rang.

"Yes?"

"Sheila..." Clark Kent said sounding a bit tired and yet happy at the same time.

"Hi Clark! How are you and the wife doing?" she asked in a casual tone.

"Doing great," the Man of Steel stated warmly. "Listen there's something we need your help with. We need a doctor who won't ask questions and Doctor Cross is unavailable at the moment."

"I'd love to," Sheila grinned. "I will be right over."

"Thank you," Superman said relieved. "We need someone with medical training to help with this."

That got Sheila even more interested. With Superman it always was unique. The part of her that was working late at S.T.A.R. Labs left her work. The dirty blonde-haired intern waved to the security guard at the parking garage exit and she drove down the street to park near an eatery.

In the blink of an eye she appeared outside their apartment door, the 'basic' civilian Sheila had replaced Sara Homer's face and hair, though she still had her badge now in her pocket. She knocked on the Kent apartment. "Hello?"

Clark had the door open almost instantly. "Strange, I didn't hear you run up."

"I do have more powers than speed running. I've been working on teleporting ever since Kid Devil was almost killed when Vortex bounced me into the Atlantic Ocean. I need to figure out a more efficient way to teleport though. I can't reach the Moon."

"Have you considered something like a Zeta Beam?" Clark suggested.

"Clark, I'm magically leaping across space. I don't think a Zeta Beam would be quite the same. How are you, Lois?" Sheila asked.

"I'm fine. What are you doing in a S.T.A.R. Lab jacket?" the reporter asked from her seat. She was looking a little pale and getting very pregnant looking. That there was someone sitting next to her was a surprise.

"Looks like you got too much sunlight today, Lois. And I work there as an Intern. And who's this fellow?"

This fellow was a young boy of about six with brown hair wearing a T-shirt and shorts. "I'm Chris."

"This is Christopher Kent. We are adopting him. He's special like I am," Clark explained carefully.

"Hello, I'm Sheila," the scion said with a bright smile to Christopher. She then looked deeply at him with her sight. She quickly could tell he was Kryptonian. And the Captain Carrot wrist watch Chris was wearing wasn't fully holding back his powers. In fact that looked like they were starting to build up inside him.

"A red sunlight watch? It doesn't seem to be fully putting his solar energy into stasis," Sheila stated. Then Sheila got an idea. "Say would either of you mind I help forge his documents and say he's from Gotham?"

"No Man's Land..." Lois muttered. "Of course. The records are full of holes because of that."

"Exactly. Now is there anything you'd want for a middle name Christopher?" They should probably watch that closely. If they were doing it, so were the 'badguys'.

The Kyptonian boy rubbed his chin and pondered that. After few minutes he shrugged.

"How about Alan?" Clark interjected. "After my favorite member of the Justice Society." Which of course was a reference Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern of Earth to be a public superhero.

"Right," Sheila said as she looked over Lois and the ace reporter's unborn daughter. Mother and child were in good shape. Clark's own tales of how it wasn't until he was in his teens before his powers started kicking in had helped with some of their both seemed to be doing fine, so they would just have to watch the situation carefully.

Lois had her hand on her growing stomach as she sat in a lazy-boy chair. "We already knew that too much sunlight might be a bit dangerous. Are you sure she will be fine?"

"She'll be fine. You just might have to wear special opaque outfits. So are you going to bring Chris over to meet his cousin?"

That perked up the young boy. "Cousin? I thought you were alone?" he asked Clark.

"It's a bit complicated, but Conner was my something like a younger brother. He had a kid just before he died, her name is Clara. But she's very young," the Kryptonian explained.


	2. The New DCU

Part One: Reintroductions

The crackling energy field in the prison snapped off, letting the prisoner's groans echo through the suddenly silent room and corridor. Dark, rusted and forbidding all were apt descriptions of this high and low tech prison.

"Granny Goodness has tried so hard, but the child is a bad, bad child. Granny disciplines her so much her power whip needs recharging," the deformed, old looking woman said.

"And what brings you here today?" the younger, lithe girl asked the woman that looked like she was half troll.

"Granny Goodness wants to know how you exist. How the girl and boy exists! Desaad said that you are alien, though the girl is less alien than you," Granny Goodness asked in a sickly sweet tone.

"I survived the reality warping of indiscriminate time travel, of course. This is a chaotic corner of the multiverse. Even the underlying rules of time and space can change," the ragged blonde replied.

"Darkseid wanted that, to protect against threats-"

"He did not want to be rewritten; churned into the creation of universes. He hated that he was not just immune-"

ZWAAARRAAAARK. The pain lance let up after a second. "Stupid Girl keeps saying nasty, bad things. About Granny. About Desaad. And about great and mighty Darkseid," the head brainwasher of Apokolips hissed out in an angry voice.

"If minor truths like that cause such a reaction, you guys must be very insecure. I mean you could use a beautician and Desaad could use about ten centuries of psychotherapy, but I thought Darkseid was a bit more secure in his confidence-"

The pain lance thundered again. "Nasty, nasty girl."

"Sheila, ten to two. You really are falling behind in the points... Old woman. Or is troll more accurate?"

Another blast of pain as Granny Goodness laid on to her. "You! You!"

"O-ohhh, another point. That's almost as good as when I called you a silly hag that shouldn't be allowed to raise your eyes to your betters, much less raise children."

Granny's screams were thunderous as the lance shot out multiple times. The goddess that was the head brainwasher of Apokalyps did not even hear the warning buzzer for five minutes. A specific buzzer that was to warn when a Boom Tube would be used. Granny had burned a hole in the younger goddess's stomach, even though the pain lance did not normally leave a mark.

"Checkmate," Shelinaria croaked out, even as her form suddenly melted away.

Deft hands had appeared from the shadows right behind Granny Goodness, grabbing a small silver chain and amulet as she telekinetically unlocked the lock-pouch. Then faster than the New God could turn, Shelinaria vanished in a blur of speed.

Granny's blood suddenly froze as she whipped around, seeing the blinking red light. "No, she can not escape. Her hand went to her high tech looking belt, only to come away empty handed, as the Amulet of Athena's Wisdom was missing. "No! Granny Goodness is a good girl! Granny Goodness did not let evil, nasty goddess escape! No!"

The teenage goddess was moving far too fast as she fled at over forty-five hundred miles per hour to hear the panicked, evil 'New God'. Shelinaria had heard a distant boom of a Boom Tube. From the echoing, it had to come from the main courtyard outside her prison cell.

It had taken careful husbanding of her mystical energies to have enough power to co-locate herself and fuel running so fast. Weeks as she worried over her niece and Lor-Zod that had been taken from her. The bug-like shock-troopers of Apokalypse barely saw a blur travel past them and into the warehouse where they were guarding a shipment to Intergang.

The boom shattered windows within a block in the warehouse district. Shelinaria punched right through the simple, if thick, brick wall and then out onto the streets. Blue-green eyes looked around as she scanned around quickly as she skidded to a halt.

"Metropolis! I am going to feel like such a weakling. Help! Superman!" she screamed out.

Said Superman, in his guise of Clark Kent looked up from where he was doing his oft neglected laundry. He had heard the massive sonic boom and had been listening in, so the scream for help had not been totally unexpected.

Then he heard the rain of glass and more screams for help. He was out the window and streaking through the air, flying just under the speed of sound. He arrived just in time to see a girl wearing rags and a silver necklace being attacked by dozens of Parademons.

She actually seemed to be holding her own.

"Good, you were in the city," Shelinaria said in relief. "Don't disappear right after. I have critical information for you." Both fists hit two faces of the shock-troopers, knocking them out instantly. She was not holding back in the slightest.

"Can it wait to the end of the battle?" the blue and red armored Kryptonian asked.

"That depends on if you want family matters aired out here or not," she replied while ducking six different beams from the troopers.

Superman just let those same beam attacks splash off of his chest, returning fire with his heat vision. "Kara did not mention that she had made any new friends. But perhaps later, in private."

"Can you keep them off of me for about thirty seconds?" Shelinaria asked.

"Consider it done," Superman replied. He blitzed forward and then punched one bug trooper so hard he knocked over six more behind him.

The blonde in rags grabbed an enemy electron beam rifle and put her hand on it, accessing the alien magitech inside. Its encryption immediately rejected her, only to find itself being overwhelmed as passwords for each level of lockout were mentally produced. The rifle reconfigured itself and then a spiraling blue beam shot out and hit the edge of the boom tube, cutting one of the exiting troopers in half. "I cut off their boom tube, so no more reinforcements for at least a few more minutes."

Superman frowned at that. Was she one of the New Gods? If she wasn't...then what was she?

One thing Shelinaria could say; Darkseid's troops were fanatical. Not that it helped them once they were cut off from reinforcements.

* * *

><p>"So talk," Superman said gruffly the moment they landed on a rooftop on the other side of a city.<p>

"This isn't exactly security conscious," the young blonde noted aloud as she looked around. "I was captured by Darkseid and three children that were in my care were taken from me."

The Kryptonian frowned. "And you want to invade Apokalypse to rescue them?" That was a bit daunting, even for him. Even though Batman had done it when the Justice League first formed to save him, that had been amazingly lucky.

"Well, that's why I'm contacting family of the children." Here Shelinaria frowned. "You look very young."

That surprised him. Then Superman frowned right back. "If you are referring to myself, I have one cousin who is not a child."

That got her eyes to widen a bit. "Things must have been rewritten more differently than I would have imagined. Ma and Pa are-?"

The Superhero wanted to grab her and demand to know what she knew, but that was what villains did. "How did you know them?"

"I got introduced to them through Connor's foster parents when he was going through a rough patch. So Cassie and I dropped in and we went down to the old watering hole. And nearly got caught skinny dipping by old man Linmores."

The Man of Steel blinked at that. "Who?"

"He owns the farm to the northwest of the Kents. Or did, before time got overwritten." The pain from her stomach wound was throbbing. She wondered if this was how Alexander Luthor felt finding everything had changed. And why Hal Jordan in the middle of his Parallax possession also wanted to make things how he remembered them.

Sheila now could sympathize with them, but realized she could not just redo reality to what she remembered if she had a way to change it. That the people of this reality didn't deserve to be rewritten out of existence just because it wasn't the one she was from. Or how she wanted things to be.

Plus the thought of becoming whiny and destructive like that other Superboy was extremely disturbing.

Superman saw Sheila was in pain. "I think you were correct in we need to take this to a more secure location. Superman to Watchtower, two to teleport."

With a flash of white light, they appeared on the telepad up in the Watchtower. The curve of space could be seen through the windows. The scarlet armored figure looked up from where he was watching something on the screen.

"Superman? Who's this?" the Flash asked.

"I'm Shelinaria. Are Batman and Wonder Woman around? I have some very important matters to talk to them about." The young goddess was wearing rags and carrying a parademon rifle, but she still made it look good.

The Man of Steel looked confused even as Cyborg walked in across the main monitor room.

"Wonder Girl?" Cyborg asked as visual cross-checking with all the computers put a match to her scuffed up face. "I'll signal them."

That perked the girl up. "Oh good, she wasn't erased at least. No, I'm not Cassie. It's more that I was an alternate reality version of her stuck here in this universe."

"Alternate reality? That's kind of neat. I've been studying up on dimensional vibrations," the Flash interjected with interest.

"So that does mean Wonder Woman is active if there is a Wonder Girl. That's a load off my mind-" Shelinaria started to explain.

"Wait. Where you come from Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl are connected?" Superman asked suddenly.

The young goddess looked surprised for a second, then a small spark of hope died in her eyes. "They were, before time was rewritten. Cassie talked about being an annoying teen borrowing several mystical artifacts to empower herself to be a 'wonder girl'. But not here, I take it?" she asked.

"Oh? And how did you two relate?" the Flash asked.

Shelinaria snickered. "The first time I met her was only minutes after arriving in New York City. She accused me of being an evil clone and trying to take my head off with a punch. Then we were teammates with the Titans. Then sort of sisters, I guess. Then at the end, family and goddesses among heroes." She blinked at their startled looks. "Ah, right. I didn't tell you my full name. I am Shelinaria, Goddess of Battle and Excellence. Daughter of Pallas Athena."

"You are shitting me, sister. A goddess? And isn't Athena a virgin goddess?" the scarlet speedster asked.

She shot the Flash a glare. "And adoption is impossible?"

"Oh, right."

Another flash of light came from the teleport pad as Wonder Woman arrived. She then flew across the room quickly. "I came as fast as possible."

"Diana?"

The Amazon was quite startled by the near tackle and hug. It did not appear to be an attack. "What is going on? Who are you?"

"The daughter of Pallas Athena, supposedly," Cyborg noted dryly, getting a chuckle out of Superman and the Flash.

Wonder Woman's face turned quite serious and very unwelcoming. "Really?" she replied frostily.

"Like I told him, adopted-" Shelinaria stopped and pulled back. Then she blinked and took a small sniff. "A demigoddess?"

Now it was Superman's and Wonder Woman's turn to be surprised.

"How do you know that?" the raven-haired woman demanded.

"It would be really stupid if those of divine blood could not discern those of other divine blood. Can you not sense the murmur of the crowd and the scent of olive oil on a spiritual level?" Shelinaria had let her loose and casually stepped back a step.

"I have no idea what you are..." Wonder Woman frowned even as she sniffed ever so slightly. "I can. Strange."

"Whoa, time out. Demigoddess? I thought you were just an Amazon from Thymescria?" the Flash asked. No, nearly demanded.

"I am the daughter of Zeus, so I am a demigoddess of the Greek gods." It was simple fact from the older woman.

"So aunt and probably sister. Kind of neat. When is Batman going to get here?" Shelinaria asked Cyborg.

"He's busy, so he's going to be on the communicator. Why?"

"Well, I figured he would want to help rescue Batman's god daughter from Darkseid."

Superman put on his best glare as he stepped forward and put his fists on his hips. "I think it is time to explain."

Shelinaria nodded. "It all started when Booster Gold appeared with a warning that I was about to be written out of existence. I had ten minutes to prepare before the wave was going to rewrite history and I was not going to exist. Since I was babysitting the kids I did my best to save them in what little time I had."

"So who are these kids?" Cyborg inquired. And why are they so important?

"Clara, the daughter of Superboy and Wonder Girl; Chris, the adopted son of Superman; and then there's Diane, the half-human biological daughter of Superman. And the longer we wait, the harder it is going to be to rescue them."

Clark looked like he'd been punched in the gut by Darkseid at that.

"Impossible. The power to rewrite reality is beyond anyone," Batman stated in a grim tone.

"No. It isn't." The Flash had a devastated look on his face. "All it takes is changing something in the past."

Shelinaria wanted to ask him what he meant, but she did not want this getting more sidetracked.

"So the Justice League is on this," Cyborg declared.

"This is personal-" the blonde started to say.

"No, he's right. You are going to need all the help you can get," the speedster said. "And we're a team."

"Thanks," Superman said seriously.

"I can be there in twenty minutes. See if Aquaman is going to be available. Batman out." The holo-screen blinked out.

"That's it? No Captain Marvel? Power Girl? Hawkman? Teen Titans? The Justice Society? Outsiders?" The young goddess was not liking the sound of this.

"The Teen Titans are just kids. We don't have any way to contact Hawkman. I don't even know who those others are," Cyborg said. "Twenty minutes is enough time to quickly make some armor. Aquaman says he's on his way."

"Diana, do you have a spare sword? I doubt you guys have a spare singularity rifle, do you?"

"A spare what?" Flash asked her. She did not just ask if they had a gun that shot black holes, did she?

"I'd need to head back to get one," Wonder Woman stated, ignoring the Flash.

"Tell me where you got your gear and I'll send you there," Cyborg told her.

"Now tell me why there are no ties between the Teen Titans and the Justice League?" Sheila asked Superman and Flash. "After all if any of them are basing themselves off you... wouldn't you want to know who they are and not have them reflect poorly on you?"

Barry had to admit Sheila had a point. "Well, Kid Flash has dropped off the face of the Earth after making a house fire worse for trying to help."

"So he used his super speed and caused a thermal updraft?" Sheila commented. "Sounds like a good reason for you to act as a mentor to him doesn't it?"

"I get what you're saying," Flash admitted. "Kind of embarrassed that I didn't think of it first."

"And if I encounter that Superboy, I will try to help him with his powers," Superman said sounding like he was deep in thought. It seemed strange to Clark that now he seemed to have family coming out of the woodwork. He had his cousin Kara, an adopted son and a biological daughter. And he noticed that Shelinaria had not said who the mother was.

He wondered how he was going to deal with having children. And mentoring a teenager. Something he had to admit to himself he should be doing with his cousin Kara, but she was so touchy.

Aquaman appeared, filling the Watchtower with the smell of brine. "What's this emergency?" he demanded imperiously.

"Darkseid captured three very important children that need rescuing," Batman said from behind him, stepping out of his shadow. Piggybacking his teleport to coincide with Aquaman's transport had allowed him to practice sneaking in. Just in case of an emergency.

"I hate to say this, but I think I'm going to really miss GL on this," the Flash said in an upset tone.

The young goddess had disappeared with Cyborg and reappeared wearing a silver-gray suit of armor. She slipped the sword onto her hip from Wonder Woman.

Then she started to cast a spell. Then repeated it twice more.

"You know some magic?" Wonder Woman asked even as Aquaman asked the Flash who the strange girl was in the background.

"I've been expanding my repertoire of abilities. This spell will allow me trace the strand of Fate that binds me to my niece and her cousins. Are we ready?" Shelinaria asked the team. It was good to find out they were still totally selfless heroes. She would have hated to end up on that world with the Injustice League.

"Unless Batman wants some of his Batman Inc. to be used as cannon fodder," Aquaman said in a snide tone.

"They aren't up for this sort of rescue mission," Batman said coldly

"Even the one who helped the Justice League International team?" Flash asked as he was agreeing with Sheila in they could use all the help they could get.

"Batwing and the other former members of the JLI are not available," Batman replied quickly.

"Let's go, people," Cyborg called out. "Calculating a Boom Tube."

BOOM.

* * *

><p>The heat of the fire pits hit instantly, along with the burning scent of brimstone and ionized gases. Arthur already looked a bit battered by the surroundings.<p>

"Twenty minutes and counting on rebooting to do another transport tube," Cyborg called out.

"Let's hope we're still alive then," Aquaman commented heavily sweating. The memory of the last time Victor's boom tube technology dumped them in Apokalyps was not something he ever liked dwelling on.

"Flash, Superman; keep up." Sheila called, then disappeared in a blur.

He started to smirk then had to take off before he lost sight of her, as she was moving faster than just about anyone other than Superman. Superman was flying after them as fast as he could, but he was really following their heat trail as they outdistanced him in the maze of corridors.

"What are we supposed to do?" Aquaman demanded. He hated it when people just dumped things on him.

"It's obvious. We're supposed to defend Cyborg until they get back so we can escape. Wonder Woman?" Batman asked. He shot a grapple into the myriad pipes above them to disappear.

"Here they come!" the Amazon demigoddess called out as Parademons boiled out of the hallways in front of and behind them.

Aquaman simply extended his trident to let the first trooper impale himself. Diana on the hand was a whirlwind of destruction as she launched an all out assault on the Parademons. Her fists, feet, and sword stuck them and were all equally devastating to the minions of Darkseid.

Hundreds of miles away, Parademons scrambled to fill a room that had an energy cage. Inside was a small toddler that was wriggling unhappily and crying.

"Guard the child! Darkseid has ordered us hold until Kalibak arrives. Our lives for Darkseid!" the highest (menial) ranked Parademon screed out. That was when three blurs flashed through, leaving an empty room with a deactivated cage.

The brutish Kalibak stepped in. His furrowed brow twisted into an angry sneer. "Where is the child?"

"The wind took it!" the ranked Parademon squealed pitifully. "Kill me, Lord Kalibak, so that I may die for Lord Darkseid!"

The brutish elder son of the lord of Apokolips sneered. "No. You will tell Darkseid what happened before I arrived."

Back at their arrival point, Batman called out, "Wonder Woman, break through that wall to your left! Running battle!" He tapped the comlink in his cowl to activate it. "Superman, we need you back in five minutes or we are going to be overrun."

Cyborg unleashed a massive sonic attack, causing all of the Parademons to stagger around drunkenly. That allowed Wonder Woman and Aquaman to start taking them down even more rapidly.

"Understood," the Man of Steel replied.

In the grim fortress of Darkseid, a Parademon dared interrupt his lord and master. "Master! Lord Darkseid! We are under attack! The stranger goddess from the No-Time Room!"

"She dares take what is mine?" the gray, rocky skinned tyrant declared loudly in anger.

Granny Goodness was quaking in her boots as she grovelled on the ground. It was better to be silent at this point.

"Justice League! She brought the Justice League!" his head assassin called out.

"Fools! They are blitzing us! Ignore the attacks to rescue the children. Defeat the slower group to forestall them all escaping!" Darkseid scowled as he saw the first group was starting to move. "Where are my Furies?"

"They are currently putting down a rebellion near the Scorch fire pit, my lord," Kanto declared. "Shall I order them to break off the trail of Mr. Miracle?"

"No, otherwise he will use this opportunity to escape." It appeared, yet again, that the Lord and Master of Apokolips would have to intervene personally. His glowing red eyes flared.

Back in the thick of the running battle, Aquaman was not feeling happy whatsoever. "This is not going to work. Darkseid's going to just boom tube ahead of us."

The three 'super-speedsters' of the group reappeared, each carrying a child.

"About three more minutes, right Cyborg?" Sheila called out as the Flash set Chris on the ground.

"Right!" he shouted back.

A scarlet blur created a massive whirlwind around them, creating an impassible barrier to the low powered Parademons.

That was when the air started to distort, only to be hit by her electron beam rifle on the outer edge and periphery of the forming wormhole tube; Sheila was reacting with hyper-tense reflexes.

Darkseid stopped as he was about to step through, his boom tube disrupted. "Foolish child. You play with forces you do not understand nor control."

"Hold onto Clara," Shelinaria said to Cyborg as she carefully set the girl into his hands.

"What? I need my hands free to fight," the youngest member of the League snapped out, only to get the child to squall louders.

"You are definitely escaping because you are creating the boom tube." And to the young goddess, that was the most important thing.

"I've got the other two," Batman said as he used his cape to hold the infants carefully.

The full kryptonian child looked angry even as he clung to Batman's waist. "I can fight," he declared in a petulant tone.

"Here he comes," Wonder Woman called at as she saw another boom tube form. "His right eye is mine."

Darkseid's first view upon stepping through his boom tube as the pointed tip of Wonder Woman's sword only an inch from his right eye. Battle-honed reflexes started his head twisting out of the way...

... into the other sword that had started to move after he reflexively ducked the maiming attack.

Shelinaria's glowing red sword slashed out his left eye with life-inimical energies.

Darkseid screamed as he felt the sword burn deeper than mere flesh. "What did you do?"

"I am a goddess of war, Darkseid. The wounds I inflict can even fell creatures that can regenerate limbs," she declared.

"Boom tube is ready to go," Cyborg called out, activating his Motherbox derived technology.

Beams of pure force erupted from his hands, blasting back Superman and Wonder Woman as Shelinaria drifted back on soft steps that looked too graceful to be so swift. "Die, Justice League!" His one un-maimed eye blasted out with the full power of his Omega Beam to destroy the half-metal, half-human hero. And the demigoddess baby he carried.

The Omega Beam bent when the young goddess grasped the moment and slammed her hand into the beam before it could dodge out of the way.

With a boom, the Justice League disappeared. In their wake they had left destruction and one wounded god of domination and evil. Darkseid roared his anger. Roared so loud that it echoed across the heavens and sent psychics into catatonia.

And Apokolips responded as all of the fire pits exploded in redoubled fury.

* * *

><p>Shelinaria's scorched and barely humanoid body flew across the main watchtower room, smashing through several chairs and the main table.<p>

"Gods above!" Wonder Woman leaped across the room as she dropped her sword. "She's still alive."

"Get her to sick bay," Batman ordered in a gravelly tone. The baby in his cape started to cry loudly.

"Anishii! Anishii!" the toddler in Cyborg's hand screamed out.

A scarlet blur disappeared with the smoldering body, leaving an acrid stench of burnt meat and shell-shocked heroes and children behind.

"Heart monitor, ointments. Prep for skin grafts-" the Flash was saying as he blurred through emergency triage.

A blue-green eye cracked open and used the last of her willpower to regenerate the worst of her damage. Patches of scar tissue appeared among the scorched, divine flesh.

While the others rushed to their best to help the wounded goddess, Superman found himself in a situation he was ill prepared for and worried on what he should do.

He was trying to keep the three children calm. Three children that had seen Sheila nearly fried by an Omega Beam. And he had utterly no idea how to do it. He prayed the Legion would show up and have some instant healing device or drug for Sheila. So far his wishes were not coming true.

To make matters even worse for Clark, two of those terrified children were his! (Or something like that.)

Superman tried to think of he could do and he was coming up with nothing. He felt utterly powerless.

"Relax. I have a solution." Batman crouched down to look Chris in the eyes. "I happen to know someone that makes great Mickey Mouse pancakes. And you can meet Damian."

Chris gave him a glare. "Mickey Mouse pancakes are silly. I'm not going to let you hurt my little sister. Even if you are Batman." He muttered something under his breath. "I want my dad there."

It took a few minutes and one trip up from the Batcave. Alfred Pennyworth only raised one eyebrow at two of the most esteemed superheroes trying to deal with two fussy babies and one surly boy. Or a civilian dressed Superman looking completely out of his depth. Wonder Woman was following behind, a look of bemusement on her face.

"How droll, sir. Usually you space these things out before bringing in new children," the butler noted.

"They're not mine," Batman remarked. "They're his."

"He's not my dad," Chris grumbled. "He barely looks older than Conner and wore some weird armor."

"Damien is already asleep, but perhaps we should get these tykes some food and then put down to sleep. Now where did I put that crib," the butler muttered as he started to put his training in gear. "Ah, up in the attic."

"I'll help with that," Clark stated quickly and hoping to have a chance to sort out his thoughts.

"Put it in the large bedroom at the end of the south hall on the second floor, Master Superman."

By the time Clark had found the crib and moved it to the large bedroom Alfred had some water heating and a package of baby formula powder out. He had his homemade batter for pancakes being poured onto the just-right heated up grill.

Clara was sort of half asleep while Chris was watching everything and everyone intently.

"Is Sheila going to be okay?" the young boy asked finally as the first stack of delicious smelling pancakes was set in front of him. He picked up the syrup, sniffing carefully.

"She does not seem to be in danger and is healing. We can only hope that she recovers quickly," Bruce said from the end of the table where he was watching the children.

Alfred had finished mashing up some bananas and started to carefully feed Clara. She turned her head.

"Wan Anishii!" she bawled out.

"Oh dear, I was afraid of this. She doesn't know any of us and she's being fussy." Alfred tried to get her to take a spoonful of food.

The young toddler with black hair started to struggle, fighting to get out of the high chair.

CRACK. The highchair tray flew through the air and imbedded halfway in the wall. Clark just caught her in time before she and her chair hit the ground in a perfect example of equal and opposite reactions. She started squalling and crying again.

"I think I better hold her for now," Clark said quickly.

The door kicked open to reveal a ten year old with terrible bed hair in pajamas slid in with his hands in a martial arts pose. Damian blinked. Blinked again. And then frowned.

"Bruce? Who are these... people?" the ten year old asked as he relaxed ever so slightly.

"Refugees who need a place to stay as their guardian is very hurt after rescuing them, Damian. This is Chris, but I'm not sure of the two girl's names," Bruce said as he pointed to the toddler and the baby that Alfred was feeding with a bottle of formula.

"Her name's Clara and the baby is Diane." Christopher Alan Kent, who had been known as Lor-Zod, frowned heavily. Shelinaira had said not to use their last names as they spent the few hours in the Null-Time Sphere.

Clara was winding down and had started to hiccup, falling asleep in the crook of Clark's arm.

* * *

><p>The next evening, Bruce was not really sure what to do. The baby had been asleep off and on all day and quite noisy, while Clara was definitely unhappy. Thankfully, they hadn't been as destructive as he'd feared. He had been worried that he might not have a home by the end of the day.<p>

Chris and Damian had not gotten on well at all. His son had acted his normal self, only to find that Chris could be just as big a jerk. The young Kryptonian had been totally unimpressed by the genius, martial arts prodigy. And given Robin was his favorite superhero that said at lot. However that Robin had been Tim Drake, and not this condescending Damian kid. Damian hadn't taken it well that someone thought any version of Red Robin was more impressive than he was.

It had taken a direct intervention between himself and Clark to keep the two from having a super powered battle through the mansion. A fight that was over Daiman considering bacon cheeseburgers to be disgusting and foul.

"How is the soup?" Bruce asked of Chris.

"It's pretty good. Definitely not from a can," he replied carefully, then took a schlurp of the minestrone. "When is... Clark going to be back?"

"He said he would check back in a few hours. He's trying to figure out what he can do, as he currently has a roommate and suddenly sprouting two children would raise too many questions." Bruce had started to build up the paperwork for the three children.

That was when a very bandaged up figure walked into the room slowly. She was wearing a loose T-shirt, sweat pants and fuzzy slippers. "Sorry for interrupting, Bruce. Thank you for helping with the kids."

"Anishii! Anishii!" Clara screamed out from her high chair. She had both hands held out, obviously wanting to be picked up.

"Yes, Auntie Sheila is here," the young goddess said. She floated the child over with her telekinesis and started cooing

"Should you actually be out of bed? You were missing most of your skin," the billionaire noted.

"I'm regenerating, but it is going to take a while. Probably more than a week at this rate. I can usually at least heal up after a major battle. That was far too close to absolute death for my liking. And dying again..." She shuddered at that.

"Considering that one of his Omega Beams has taken out Superman, I'd say you came out alright," Bruce noted in an amused tone.

"She fought Darkseid? Really?" Damian could almost believe that with all of her bandages.

"Someone had to make sure they didn't hit the kids," Sheila said and tried to smile.

"Yeah. She and the Flash and dad were like woosh. Stupid Parademons didn't even see them and then Darkseid appeared- And I'm babbling again. Sorry." The young full-Kryptonian looked quite abashed.

"It's all right. It sounds like it was cool," Damian replied.

"So what are your plans?" Bruce asked, his manner suddenly very serious, the Batman without his mask.

"I need a place to stay where I can raise the kids. I won't dump it on anyone else. Do you have a spare house or something that I could use? Something semi defensible, if you don't mind."

"Not outside the city at this moment, but there used to be separate servant's quarters here on the grounds. I've got some discrete contractors that will be building it here in just a few weeks. In the meantime, you are my guests." Bruce seemed slightly frazzled.

"How has Diane been?" Shelinaria asked them.

"She's very unhappy and fussy," Alfred said explained, only showing that he was a little tired.

"She's lost her parents and Darkseid probably tried to start brainwashing the children. Chris, did they try to hurt you to make you do what they wanted?" the young goddess asked the boy.

"Not a lot of pain. Less than green kryptonite. Darkseid said he was waiting for us to age up to adults before doing stuff," the young man in shorts and a T-shirt said.

"I guessed right then. Once I figured out we were on Apokolips, I imbued you three with enough life force energy to keep from aging for a few centuries. So he was trying to age you just a few years and kept failing," the bandaged up heroine said, then chuckled. "I guess Darkseid is still a bit predictable."

Bruce nodded. "So we can expect that he would try something similar with any other 'interesting' children."

"Better minions, I guess. I prefer loyal allies," Shelinaria replied as she bounced the suddenly happy toddler on her hip.

"It's too bad that you are going to be stuck as a full time guardian to the kids," the Dark Knight's alter ego said in a contemplative tone.

"Why is that a problem?" she asked curiously as she watched Chris and Damian argue over which game system and games to play on the gigantic screen TV.

"You would probably be a very promising member for the Justice League. And we have been looking at expanding. In fact, we are going to be having them up to the satellite. At the Flash's suggestion." Bruce did not sound thrilled at all.

"It's really not a problem. I think I'm starting to recover enough for this." Shelinaria closed her eyes reached for her flagging power and then...

...there was suddenly two of her. Clara started clapping her hands together and thankfully not creating sonic booms.

"Let's just leave it that I can exist in multiple places at once." She gave the stoic businessman and vigilante a grin you could barely see under the bandages.

"How many can you create?"

"Just the one." Which was absolutely the truth for that moment. It took a bit of effort to create another co-location point in space. Effort she could not make right then.

"I think you've found the greatest superpower in existence. So which one is the real you?" he asked casually.

"We're both 100 % totally real, Mr. Wayne."

And that answer actually unnerved him.

* * *

><p>Shelinaria unwrapped the bandages about her face, carefully judging the light scarring that was still visible and the stubble of hair on her head. They were now in the newly constructed 'servant's bungalow' to the north of Wayne Manor, having just moved in the day before after she helped finish the month of construction in just hours. And even that use had been grudging, as she did not want to waste her power. In the past week she had recovered a fair amount of her strength, but even now she felt a bit emotionally fragile; weak.<p>

But as her hands traced the last six major scars off of her body with her scouring power of healing, she nodded. She shook her hair back down to its normal shoulder length. A wink had it glowing like a soft ray of sunlight. Then she put on the high tech armor that she had made down in the Batcave.

(Bruce was still upset that she unlocked his clock-door.)

"Sword, armor and looking pretty good, if I do say so myself-" she started to say to herself when she heard the emergency alert over the TV.

"This is an Emergency Alert. Tsunami have appeared and all people are requested to evacuate to high ground. I repeat, a tsunami is headed to Gotham and will hit shortly-" the announcer was blaring out at full volume.

"Where's Damian?" Shelinaria demanded. "You and the girls are going into the safe room."

"I think something was up. I haven't seen him since yesterday," the young Kryptonian said. "I can help."

Sophia Harris, the other alternate identity of herself, walked in carrying both Clara and Diane. "You can help by making sure that your sister and cousin are safe. If this gets as nastily flooded as it looks like, there are going to be a lot of dead bodies."

"But-"

"Christopher Alan Kent," Shelinaria said in warning. "Please go into the safe room. And I promise, if I really need you and you can make a big difference, I'll bring you. Okay?"

He looked at her in frustration, but finally nodded. "Okay."

Shelinaria flashed out of the house and over to Gotham, just a few miles down the coast. She was just in time to see a massive wave, hundreds of feet tall, only a scant minute away from smashing over the wharf and docks. The Bat Signal was the only glimmer of light as the black wave of water encroached.

"Guess there no time like the present to see how strong my telekinesis really is." With that she then grabbed at the millions of tons of water (fairly futilely) and then pushed on the very bottom of the wave. It immediately started to curl over, transferring more and more of its horizontal kinetic energy into vertical motion.

Warehouses, ships and not a few businesses were wiped out. Thousand of people were killed, but the massive and greatest part of the killer tsunami wave was spent on only a fraction of the city instead of encompassing most of the city in a dreadful deluge.

Commissioner Gordon looked down at his city, seeing waves only ten to twenty feet waves pass by the base of the buildings this far downtown. "She did this?" She must be some new superhuman. As if that wasn't obvious by her floating in front of him with her hair glowing like strands of sunlight.

Her phone started to ring and beep. On its screen it had one message, asking her for help and to head to Boston.

"That's not creepy," she muttered to herself. And with that she shot off to where an army of Atlanteans were invading Boston.

* * *

><p>The waters were churning as the armies of Atlantis sorted themselves out into ranks and divisions. With a swish, Shelinaria appeared over at the police headquarters.<p>

A solid looking woman with graying hair turned to her. "What the hell is going on out here?!"

"Invasion by a sub-aquatic race. They've devastated the local shore and are about to send a full battalion of troops into Boston. You need to contact the National Guard and the Army immediately," the glowing haired goddess explained in a clipped tone quite at odds with the soft burr of Boston accents.

"You have got to be shitting me. I thought that Superman was here and was taking care of things," the woman said even as she pulled out her cell phone.

"Well, I'm sure he's helping with the Justice League," Sheila remarked. "But, even he and the Flash can't be everywhere, and I did not see him down there. So we need to take action on our own. I'm Shelinaria, by the way. Good to meet you. "

"Deputy Chief Inspector Tammy Rolands. I need to clear this with the chief, but he hasn't answered his phone," the police woman replied.

"Where is his home?" the young goddess asked.

"He has a condo down in South Boston, by the docks-"

"Then he's likely unable to respond or is dead. Take charge and get the Army and US National Guard moving. I'm going to get back into the air and see what I can do without having to do something suicidal like attacking a super-powered army head on," Shelinaria called out. With a woosh, she disappeared into the dark.

"Damned if you do and damned if you don't," Tammy muttered to herself. "Dispatch, this is a priority call. Get me Brigadier General Tellers."

The young goddess's keen eyes could see through the spray and mist as if it were a clear day in the sahara, quickly calculating the numbers. Capabilities were hard to track, but she was not immediately spotting any officers off the bat. The crab-like tanks or APCs looked very formidable, and all of the soldiers were carrying some form of high tech rifle.

Then she spotted a group of them dragging a large ovoid, golden device out of the waters. She frowned as she studied the device. She held up her phone and then started to mentally trace through all the computer systems, back to where Cyborg had sent his message from.

She zipped to the side, dodging an entire heavy barrage as she found (or didn't find) Cyborg. He seemed to be offline as his system grappled with recovering the data on a security feed on the USS George Bush, a nuclear powered supercarrier. He must have felt it was incredibly important.

Her inhuman intellect attacked the job of digitally reconstructing the security video.

And when she finished that (in only three minutes) she was suddenly left with more questions than answers. Why was the man who infiltrated and used Atlantean technology to launch cruise missiles into the ocean sitting up on the Watchtower like he was a guest of the Justice League?

Her face appeared on the large view screen above Vulko and Dr. Shin.

"Who are you and why did you launch those missiles into the middle of the ocean?" the goddess demanded of the Atlantean.

"What!?" the marine biology specialist blurted out.

The rotund man of the sea scowled as he glared at the screen. "Atlantis turned its back on its true king. Orm must pay for his treachery against King Orin."

"Aquaman would never have condoned starting a war! All of these deaths... thousands of innocents... murdered by you!" The old human looked fit to be tied. But he was merely human.

So Vulko's back-handed slap knocked the other man out with incredible ease. The bearded atlantean sneered at the female with glowing hair on the screen. "I will have revenge on Atlantis for all the horrors it has spawned. The backstabbing and betrayal of the true king! For that, I will destroy them!"

With that, he pulled out a strange twin-bladed short spear as he walked over to activate the teleporter. His handheld computer interface made sure to erase the coordinates.

The splash of rain pattered off of him from his vantage. His eyes were cold, promising death to any that had slighted his king and his royal advisor. So the fist the slammed into the back of his head with carefully measured strength was totally surprising. Sheila then bent a lightweight I-beam around him.

"Don't go anywhere, I'm sure there are people dying to meet you." Shelinaria picked up and twirled the the golden spear. "Keen. Nice magic," she said as she felt the power pulsing within it. She looked down on the army on the shore. Several superheroes had shown up to fight the invasion. Sheila remembered those such as Firestorm, Captain Marvel, Vixen, Zatanna, a clean-shaven Green Arrow, Hawkman, Black Lightning, and Black Canary. The Elemental Woman, a female Atom and someone called Goldrush were all unknown to Shelinaria though.

She studied the Atlanteans, trying to gain some insight. After a few moments, she felt she had an idea on how to proceed as their leader appeared from under water. It was time for a major entrance. She juggled a few idea and then appeared over the beach in a massive sonic boom.

"Who is in charge here?" she demanded in the momentary silence.

The Atlantean king almost hissed in frustration. "And what right do you claim leadership of the surface world?" he demanded.

"I am Shelinaria, goddess of battle and excellence. This war has been wrought as revenge upon you Atlanteans and the surface world. I call for a ceasefire as-" the young goddess called out.

"Blasphemer!" Orm shouted even as he launched a lightning bolt at the girl.

A lightning bolt that she caught and then used to obliterate an organic war machine.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed? I'm trying to stop this before any more blood is shed," she said in a chilling and angry voice. The cold, killer aspect of war weighed heaving upon her aura.

The entire army suddenly found themselves hard pressed to not flee into the water.

"Who the hell is she?" Vixen asked.

"I have no idea, but I hope she's on our side," Black Lightning said as he took the lull in the battle to catch his breath.

"She's badass!" Firestorm, or rather Ronnie Raymond, called out and realized he'd just said out loud what he intended to say to Jason. The other boy in the Firestorm Matrix just shook his head mentally.

Green Arrow had a feeling he was going to give Steve an ulcer telling him about this.

And Zatanna just pursed her lips, because she was sensing the power of a divine being. But of one that she had never even heard the whisper of before anywhere. This would require at least some investigation afterwards.

"She's just putting fear into our minds artificially! She is too weak to defeat us on her own," the King of Atlantis shouted out. "I shall wash away her lies!"

And with that he tapped into his helmet's power to raise a mountain of water, hundreds of feet tall.

Shelinaria really wanted to swear at that moment as everyone from Atlantis was proving to be stubborn and as contrary as they could be. "Firestorm?" she yelled out, hoping this was within his power to affect.

"Got it!" Firestorm yelled and instantly turned the massive mountain of water into solid ice. "Um, that is a lot of water."

'You should have turned it into oxygen! Or some other gas!' Jason Rusch, his co-inhabitant of his mind, yelled loudly in his mind and in a distracting way.

"What? Why didn't you mention that first?"

The small mountain of water was still growing, the ice shattering into icebergs.

"Retaw spots gnivom!" Zatanna shouted out, pouring everything into her spell.

And the water stopped... for just a moment.

"Black Lighting, play defense against his trident of lightning bolts," Shelinaria snapped out. She grabbed the largest chunk of ice with her telekinesis with the last of her flagging Legend. The one hundred foot tall piece of ice was almost too big, but she smashed it down on top of the center of the Atlantean formation.

Then she landed right in front of King Orm, launching into flurry of sweeps and stabs with her borrowed Amazon sword. She kicked out behind her, sending one of the many Atlanteans into the air even as she kept up the pressure.

The Atlantean was quite surprised to find himself barely keeping himself from being being slain on the first sweep of the blade, diverting the sword and double-pointed spear from anything vital with all the desperate speed he could muster. King Orm was no stranger to battle, but the skill and speed, along with enough strength to penetrate his defense and push him back was more than a bit terrifying.

That was when most of the Justice League reappeared in a boom teleportation. Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman, Cyborg and Mera all looked on in surprise at the desperate battle going on.

Superman quickly reacted, blasting the water and ice with his cold breath.

"Shelinaria is going to defeat Orm at this rate," Batman said in a grudging tone. "But we need to find Vulko so we can stop this war."

'On top of the Mecurio Towers, unconscious and tied up,' the young goddess 'pathed to him through the din of crashing water, cracking ice and battle yells.

The whistle of shells started to sound as shelling from the the US Army and National Guard, as they finally arrived hours into the battle.

And into the din of battle came the hissing horrors of the Trench. They outnumbered both sides combined. Everyone turned to defend themselves against the horrific flesh eaters.

"Is that the spear or scepter that Vulko had?" Aquaman shouted as he and Batman and Wonder Woman battled nearby.

"Yes?" Shelinaria said even as she finally got a cut on the inside of King Orm's wrist.

"I yield!" Orm cried out as his trident fell into the water. "I yield!" He half collapsed in the surf, bleeding from many wounds.

"Then order the Deep Ones back to the Trench," Aquaman shouted back.

Oh. "Return to the Trench and stay there," Shelinaria called out while brandishing the scepter-spear.

With a lot of hissing that basically boiled down to 'Yes, master,' they started to turn and leave.

The young woman had to bite down the urge to correct them. "Well, that is probably going to be a useless language to know," she remarked out loud. "Now that we've stopped the totally senseless war, we need to negotiate the peace between the US and Atlantis."

"But we have no king. He yielded to you, so proved himself unfit. Are you really a goddess? Or just a powerful superhuman?" an Atlantean warrior demanded.

"Poseidon is my great uncle," Sheila explained. "So that would be yes."

Superman winced. This was going to be worse than the flack with Wonder Woman and that mess where a man was claimed in the media to be his secret identity.

"Then by right of battle, you are our queen. We will do as you bid," the Atlantean intoned.

"You do realize that I can't breathe under water, right?" At their blank looks, she gave them a glare. "Goddess does not mean all powerful and all knowing. Just more powerful than most mortals."

"Most?" Orm noted angrily.

"Yes, most. People like Superman are quite powerful in their own ways. I'm pretty sure he's like hundreds of times as strong as I am. And allowing your king or queen to be chosen by force of arms this way is a terrible precedent," the glowing haired woman noted. "That does not show they are kings, that just shows they are merely warlords."

"She's right. Even with my claim as elder son of Queen Atlanta, taking the throne just sets me up for the next coup," Aquaman said in a tired voice.

"Gather your noble houses and your leaders, for you must decide a better way to choose your king. I would be happy to offer suggestions and advice that might help you, but you must start this path on your own," Shelinaria near ordered in an imperious tone.

"She is right, my fellow Atlanteans. Let us return to Atlantis to rebuild and find the best claimant for the throne," Orm called out to the Atlanteans.

"Not you, Orm. You are not king, so have no protection of law. So you will stay here on the surface-" his elder brother called out.

"Aquaman, if the United States wishes to press for recompense for his leading this war, that needs to be decided between Atlantis and the United States. He was a leader of state and that sets a horrible precedent of its own, especially with the superhuman element involved," she said, interrupting him.

Wonder Woman nodded. "She is correct. The Atlanteans may hand him over or pay for the damages on this battle, but that is not our decision. But keeping him sets up a bad situation against other countries with their leaders that some superhuman may try to remove."

"So now you decide against all rushing headlong into things?" Arthur nearly snapped the question.

"Are you claiming to speak for the United States of America? Or Atlantis?" Superman asked in a hard voice.

"No. I'm not." He glared into the churning water for a long time. "Vulko should be sent to Atlantis for his actions that triggered this war. Hundreds were killed by those missiles he launched," Aquaman called out.

"And the US lost almost six thousand of its men even before he lashed out and nearly sank three cities. And he is in the US's custody. If Atlantis wants him, they can negotiate an extradition treaty just like everyone else." Softly glowing blue-green eyes glared right back into Aquaman's green eyes.

"It is fair, brother."

Shelinaria released a long held breath and walked over to the shore, Wonder Woman walking over to her.

"Some debut, hmm?" the Amazon said with a small grin on her face.

"Yes, Auntie," she responded with darker humor.

Zatanna raised an eyebrow at that. "So which of Zeus's children are you the daughter of?"

"Athena, by adoption," Shelinaria explained. "Hello, Zatanna."

"And by birth?" the magician continued asking, pushing just a little bit.

"Zeus, I believe. So that makes us sort of sisters, right, Wonder Woman?"

The Amazon nodded. "Which sounds better than auntie. You are nearly the same age as I."

The stage show magician blinked at that. "Huh, the things you learn. I should introduce you to my team. We're sort of the mystical equivalent of the Justice League."

Batman had been there when the "Justice League Dark" as Argus called them battled that vampire invasion of Gotham, the original Justice League had to be aware of their existence.

"I'll give you a call after this has settled down then. What's your phone number?"

"Are you propositioning me?" At Shelinaria's blush, Zatanna just started laughing. "Oh, too cute."

That got her a glare back.

* * *

><p>Amanda Waller had a wall of screens showing the Battle of Boston's Shores. "Well, this shit storm certainly gave us the push to form our own Justice League."<p>

Steve Trevor nodded. "I hear the State Department is trying to figure where and with whom they are supposed to be negotiating with."

"I'm sure they will figure it out. Eventually. But now we need to decide how we are going to form our Justice League of America," the woman said.

"I'll have Green Arrow try to get the names of everyone else who showed up," Steve informed her. "But we have a big problem. All of your matchups did not take her into account."

Waller glared at the picture of the glowing haired goddess. "She's not Justice League."

"Yet. but she more than held her own as one of the heavy hitters. Intel boys are saying she seems to have near-Superman strength in her telekinesis. And the Justice League seemed to know her," the ex-special forces officer said.

"And Katana doesn't sound like quite the matchup we needed for Wonder Woman that we thought she was. Mystical swordswoman versus Amazon sounded right, but not against a demigoddess." Waller sounded very unhappy at that. "Where the hell are we supposed to get something to counter a goddess?"

"I just wonder where she is from. Until she appeared in Metropolis, she did not exist," Steve said with a frown on his face.

"You think she might actually be one of Darkseid's goons?" That was a nightmare scenario.

"No, I don't think Diana would have gotten it wrong. Especially if they are that closely related. Perhaps she was hidden on Thymescria?"

Waller shook her head. "Speculation isn't going to help us. We need to find us at least one god or demigod. I'll get the Intel boys digging."

"And I'll see if Green Arrow has met anyone that fits the bill."

* * *

><p>It was a week later when Diana Prince returned to Wayne Manor. And for once she was driving a car. After getting past the gate, she turned off the main driveway and onto a dirt road in between two hedges.<p>

"Are you sure this is the best place to go?" Zola asked worried. "I mean the Greek Gods are bad enough, but this city is full of crazies."

"Better than London, luv," Lennox said as he played with his lighter. He wished Diana had not taken his cigarettes away.

The last person in the car sneered at them. "And why are we coming to this place? You have been very tight-lipped, Diana."

"I think this is a good place to protect your baby, Zola. And we are here." At least the rental car from the Gotham International Airport had not been destroyed. And Bruce should understand.

The one story house was not visible from the driveway, the road (or the mansion at Shelinaria's insistence) so was quite secluded on the edge of the grounds. It was very easy to miss and overlook. Just in case a supervillain came looking for Batman in his cave.

Everyone piled out as a young boy stopped where he was playing around throwing a baseball. "Auntie!" Chris shouted.

"I heard them come up the drive," the aspect of Shelinaria named Sophia Harris said as she opened the door. "Diana?" She pushed her glasses up her nose.

"Shelinaria, this is Zola, her daughter, Lennox and-" she started to respond.

"And grandmother Hera." Sophia's nose flared just a little bit. "Lennox is another demigod of the Dodekatheon? Interesting."

"Yes, and Hera here was made mortal by Apollo when he ascended to the throne of Olympus. Zola and her daughter also need a bit of protection. I figured that keeping them all together might be best."

"Humans are weird," Chris said with a scrunch of his nose.

"Chris, be nice and apologize to them for insulting humans. So, grandmother..." Sophia narrowed her eyes in thought. She was definitely still Dodekatheon. "Why are you letting everyone think you have been made mortal by Apollo?"

Wonder Woman froze at that, even as Lennox's pilfered cigarette fell off his lips.

"Let everyone think what?" Hera asked, tilting her head.

"Hera the powerful, contemporary and equal of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades let one of her husband's illegitimate children just remove your power?" Sophia just raised her eyebrows to show her disbelief.

"Damn, I thought no one was going to think of that. Though he did weaken me for a bit," the ex-Queen of the Gods said in frustration. "And who is your mother?"

"I am the scion of Pallas Athena, trained to battle the Titans when they escape Tartarus."

That got Hera to purse her lips angrily. "That wasn't an answer."

"Adopted from Zeus, I believe, in a far off and lost alternate reality. If I could just get my hands on whoever keeps rewriting reality..." the young goddess said in a frosty tone.

"Keeps rewriting reality?" Lennox said confused.

"Oh, yes. Superman looks like he's twenty-five or something. Even Batman doesn't look that old." Sophia shook her head. "You can enter as a guest, great Hera, if you promise to harm no one under its roof or on these grounds until you are no longer a guest."

"You dare demand such an oath?" Hera screeched out, sounding totally infuriated.

"Yes, I do. Otherwise I will consider you an enemy to defeat and throw into the darkest pits of Tartarus myself," the younger goddess said in warning.

"And I will aid her." Diana had her hands ready to remove her bracers that limited her powers to merely ludicrous levels.

Chris had already deactivated his watch, so he smiled and his eyes glowed red for a moment. "And you just need to ask, Auntie."

"Sounds like a plan," Lennox said with a crooked smile. The cracks in his stone-like face were finally healing and he was still as hard as nails.

"Besides, what reason do you have to be angry at Zeus's illegitimate children now? After he has disappeared and left his throne? You don't have to define your life by his mistakes," Sophia said in a cold, disdainful tone.

"True. Very well, I promise to attack no one under this roof or on these grounds as long as I am a guest." Hera smiled a small, nasty grin.

"I thought you said this was going to be a safe place?" Zola said angrily to Wonder Woman.

"And I thought it was. And now it is. Are Clara and Diane doing all right, Sophia?"

"Yes they are," Sophia said with a smile. She had even made them matching little amulets to protect them against too much yellow solar radiation.

"So who are Diane and Clara?" Zola asked as she held her baby close.

"Family. Clara is a very young demigoddess, while Diane and Chris here are her cousins on her father's side.

Hera sighed. "Let me guess, this Clara is yet another of Zeus's children or grandchildren."

"You could be right," the younger goddess said. "Of course, they are effectively orphans and totally innocent." She sighed, quite loudly. "This seems to be the visit family day."

"What do you mean-? Oh," Wonder Woman said as a figure streaked through the sky to land next to them.

"Hello, Chris. Diana," Superman said warmly. "I just finished up my patrol and through I'd swing by."

And the aspect named Sophia heard the lie quite easily. She frowned for just a second. "You know, you could have just said that Bruce noticed Diana and entourage arriving and asked for you to drop by."

Everyone blinked at that.

"How did you come that conclusion?" Not that it was incorrect, Superman reminded himself.

"I can hear lies from just about anyone-"

"Oh, gods above. You are like some unholy abomination of Athena and Artemis, aren't you?" Hera groused as she glared at the other goddess.

"I think keen senses are required to make wise decisions. Don't you?" Sophia gave an impish grin at that.

"Kal-El? Are we going to the Fortress today?" Chris asked gleefully. Even if it wasn't the same as his Krypton that he was told about, it was still better than this primitive shack in the woods.

"Sure. Krypto is waiting for you." Superman smiled at Chris' transformation into a carefree young boy.

"Yeah! Let's go!"

Zola's eyes widened as the pair took off into the sky.

"I'm going to be living with gods and aliens?"

"Living with? Well, I guess we can look at that. Let's go inside and we can talk," the younger goddess dictated.

Hera sniffed. "How mundane."

"Well, we can't all grow up in our father's stomach," Sophia said as she arched an eyebrow at them.

That got a twitch out of the older goddess. "I hope you at least have some wine."

Sophia kept an eye on the young mother who was name meant a 'lump of earth' in Italian. There could be more going than was as-yet apparent.

* * *

><p>Part 2: Finding Home<p>

Shelinaria was tapped into the Batcave's computer systems, screens flickering at an immense speed as she researched people. One screen froze at a picture of Lennox and Dr. Sandsmark appeared on the screen.

"Hmm."

Another showed Power Girl in Tokyo fighting a radioactive menace as it got bigger and bigger before it eventually exploded.

"Power Girl?" So why is the alternate universe Supergirl being so low profile up until this point?

S.H.A.D.E., A.R.G.U.S. and N.O.W.H.E.R.E. Amanda Waller and her Suicide Squad. Even whispers of CHECKMATE. The fallen Continuum. The Firestorm Protocols. And that didn't even get into the villain societies.

There was a feeling of paranoia by the governments about super heroes. The only group not hated by the public was the Justice League; it was a far cry from the world that had a Flash Museum and generally liked superheroes universe she had been in.

It did not take a genius to realize that A.R.G.U.S. and Amanda Waller were probably totally freaked out by her.

And then an alert, showing real time from the police of New York City and the 'criminal' Superboy on the police radio.

"And I think its finally time I introduced myself to the Teen Titans," Shelinaria said as she stood up, touching a hidden button for an intercom. "Mr. Pennyworth, I'm headed out. Thank you for letting me use the computer."

"Of course, Miss Shelinaria. Happy to be of service. You said you were going to work on the security of the computer systems?" the butler of Bruce Wayne asked.

"Yes. I did that at the same time. I also left the design for some quantum entanglement transmitters so he can get rid of the data lines. I'll be seeing you in the morning."

And with that, she disappeared in a flash of rainbow light.

"-at first I thought he had gone zonkers- Screaming and fighting imaginary foes! But I'm not so sure anymore. I keep forgetting how his T.K. allows him to sense things beyond human perception," Bunker said to the other Titans in front of him as he finished tying on his mask. They were standing on the edge of a hole shattered through the street.

"Superhuman perception is a very handy thing. Hello, Titans. Did you need some help?" Shelinaria asked curiously.

"Ooh, another hottie," Kid Flash (aka Bart Allen) said. "Say- waitasec, she looks like a slightly older and glowing hair version of you, Wonder Girl."

"I can see that, Kid Flash," Wonder Girl said in a very disgruntled tone. "So another clone?"

"I'm impressed with your self control. The last time I ran into Wonder Girl for the first time she tried to punch my face in and accused me of being an evil clone," Shelinaria said with a bit of an ironic tone. A cry of utter pain filled the air. "But I think that scream of agony means we need to rescue Superboy first."

They all nodded at that and dove into the hole.

"He's going to kill Superboy," Shelinaria said as she listened via 'super-senses' to someone monologue about taking Superboy apart at the atomic level. In the blink of an eye, she and Kid Flash disappeared at her full speed.

Kid Flash was thrilled, as he was still technically with someone on the team so not breaking the 'going ahead rule' that the Titans insisted on.

H'el's face was hit by a fist going easily several time past the speed of sound. He was blasted through a wall in the sewers. His expression was one of complete shock.

"Leave the boy alone," Shelinaria called out.

"Who are you?" Superboy mumbled. Even that effort almost left him unconscious.

"The girl that just saved your life, dude." Kid Flash had to admit, that was definitely the way to beat up badguys. No warning seemed to do the trick.

The wall that H'el had disappeared through ceased to exist as it was pulverized to dust..

"You dare? Children, I could end you with a thought!" H'el shouted out, quite angrily.

That was when the last three Titans caught up.

"Hey, amigos? Why did you take off?" Bunker called out from his floating and flying wall of purple bricks.

"Angry guy who fell down the ugly tree was kicking Superboy's teeth in," Bart replied.

"Actually, he was threatening to take Superboy apart to the atomic level, Kid Flash," Shelinaria said, cutting him off.

"I may not like the jerk, but I don't want him killed," Wonder Girl said. Atomized? Ouch.

"Begone!" the scarred, self-proclaimed Kryptonian declared and he telekinetically pushed them all out of the room in an energy whirlwind. He was just turning back to Superboy when he was hit again and smashed into another wall as the young goddess reappeared once again in a burst of speed and strength.

"What made you think that was going to work?" she asked rhetorically.

"Yes, it seems that I will have to handle you more directly," H'el declared as he shrugged through the mundane stone blocks.

Two titanic telekinetic forces lashed out at each other. One driven by ancient Kryptonian science, the other by a goddess learning what she could do. There was never a doubt on which is the more powerful.

The Marion Teller tower's windows shattered as Shelinaria blasted through the building at three times the speed of sound and still accelerating. It only took her two, very painful, minutes to reach orbit

H'el noted the struggle as actually taking quite a bit of effort, as the being was more difficult than he imagined the clone and the others of the House of El to be.

Kid Flash rushed back at his fastest speed and hit H'el with a flurry of punches. And H'el just sent him flying with a just a thought, a mere flick of his power.

"Enough with these distractions." H'el then grabbed the very injured and comatose Superboy and disappeared.

The rest of the Teen Titans reappeared in an attack formation.

"Ah, jeeze, we didn't even get an attack in," Bunker complained.

Solstice looked around. "Where did that other you go, Wonder Girl?"

Wonder Girl looked around. "Up that way? Let me take a look." She flew over to the hole in the ceiling, only to blink as it looked like some sort of tunel. "Kid Flash! Go to the end of this tunnel really fast."

"That's my middle name!" the speedster joked. He reappeared three seconds later. "Um, it sorta looks like this goes straight into the sky through a couple of buildings."

With another flash, Shelinaria reappeared. "Where did he go?" Her left arm made a sickening crack as it healed up.

"Whoa. What happened to you?" Bunker asked as he hopped off his brick projection. "And he's just gone. Don't know where."

"I was smacked into orbit. Luckily I was only a few hundred miles away so I could teleport back. I really need to look at figuring out a way to amplify that ability," the very beaten up girl said. Her bruises were fading rapidly though and she was able to stand up straight.

"So now what?" Solstice asked, her few features visible in her black darkness of self showed worry.

"Let's head up and try to track him down the next time he appears." Shelinaria seemed intent and forceful, which already grated on Wonder Girl's nerves.

"Think he's already attacking Superman?" Kid Flash asked. "Given he's got that S shield thing carved into his chest."

"Guy looked coo coo for cocoa puffs, if you know what I mean," Bunker mused.

"I've been meaning to talk to you guys for a while. Let's see, I'm pretty sure I can bring you along. Whatever you do, don't wake the babies," Shelinaria warned.

"What!?" the four Teen Titans asked before everyone was picked up in another flash of rainbow light.

The sound of Homer Simpson saying 'Doh!' filled their ears just a few seconds later.

"Hello, Zoe. We didn't wake your baby?" the goddess said.

"No. Lennox is outside and I think Hera took off to get something better than grape juice." The very butch looking woman looked over at the four kids from the TV. "So that's what Sophia meant when she said we should be expecting company."

"That's exactly what I meant," the slightly nerdy looking teen in glasses said as she walked in the door.

"And how did she know to expect us?" Solstice asked suspiciously.

"Because she's the me I left here to protect the house. Teen Titans, this is Zola, her son, who is the very youngest son of Zeus. And that is Clara, the daughter of Cassandra, the Goddess of Strength and Lightning. Chris and his sister are up in their room getting some sleep."

"And why are you introducing us to babies?" Bunker asked very seriously. "That seems a bit odd."

"They, along with myself, are refugees from an altered timeline where we would have likely been wiped out of existence. I was warned by a time traveller that if I did not take some sort of very serious action to lock myself away from time and space while everything was rewritten, I would cease to exist." Shelinaria seemed a bit morose.

"And... the punchline please?" Kid Flash asked.

"You don't know many people named Cassie, do you?" she countered.

"This is some sort of stupid trick, isn't it?" Wonder Girl demanded very angrily with her right fist clenched.

"I am why that you and that Superboy were able to have a child the night before he died to save the universe," Sheila said inches from Wonder Girl's face.

"He- I- What?" Cassie Sandsmark's face had gone very pale at that.

The rest of the Titans weren't doing any better, as they were shocked at the bombshell that had been dropped. Bunker's jaw dropped and Solace, even with her obscured features, was completely floored by the revelation.

"I do not expect nor demand that you take her as your own, but I am leaving this open so you are not excluded."

Wonder Girl just blinked as she processed the idea.

And, just in perfect timing, the front (and nearly soundproof) door opened, admitting one demigod from World War II, the blunt Englishman Lennox.

"Got a party going? I was just going for a walk, you know," he said in a light cockney accent even as the scent of cigarettes filled the room.

"Dad?" Wonder Girl blurted in surprise.

"Ah, bollocks. What is she doing here?"

"Waiting to find someone who attacked and took one of her teammates to strike again, Lennox," Sophia explained.

"Ah, the usual," the crusty Englishman said with a grin on his face.

Wonder Girl walked over to the mortal-looking aspect of Shelinaria. "Can I hold her?"

"This is loco, man," Bunker noted.

"Welcome to my life," Zola said with a grin.

Kid Flash just zipped looking between people, his head a blur.

"Maa! Maa!" Clara yelled out, demanding to be picked up by her mother. She curled up in the crook of Cassie's arm and immediately went to sleep.

"The hell? That girl doesn't let anyone touch her but Sheilnaria without screaming her head off," Zola noted as she stood up, holding her own baby close.

"She recognized you. Even with reality rewritten and all the differences, she knew you. She's smarter than you would think and she's a very precocious demigoddess," Sophia said with a happy smile.

"So, um, why do you three all look alike?" Kid Flash demanded.

"I'm just from an alternate reality, dumped here and pretty much stuck. I can't even get an idea of a direction to try and head back at this point. She's just another me that exists at that time and space," Shelinaria explained. "And I'm sort of an alternate of Cassie here."

"What does that make us then?" Wonder Girl asked suspiciously.

"Technically, nothing. Though we did kind of consider us sisters. I was... the evil one... that stole the cookies," Shelinaria said as tears started to stream down her cheeks. She quickly turned her back to look out the window and onto the dark lawn out front.

"I might be able to do that," Cassie finally said, feeling quite uncomfortable. "So sisters? How many of you can there be?"

"Enough to be useful," Sophia said as she hid her own tears. "I need to get back to school so I can finish designing a perfect cure for cancer. And the common cold. Though that's harder."

"What? Your superpower is being smart?" Kid Flash asked with a cocky grin on his face.

"Yes," both aspects replied.

"Your baby is cute. Is she part Kryptonian too?" Solstice asked.

Shelinaria nodded. "With a perfectly balanced genome with no defects. Kryptonite only gives her a little headache."

"No shit? That's cool," Bunker said in awe.

"Well, let's get everyone settled in and then we can wait for that scarred up man to appear again."

They all nodded at that.

* * *

><p>Shelinaria looked up from where she was talking to Zola the next morning about ten o'clock. "I hear him. His name is H'el and he's in Metropolis," she called out suddenly and quite loudly.<p>

The rest of the Teen Titans jarred into action. Kid Flash was instantly in his uniform, while Wonder Girl's armor appeared. The only one that needed more than a second to get ready was Bunker, but he was actually mostly in his superhero uniform.

"And it just went south as he and Superman are duking it out. Everyone ready?" Shelinaria called out.

At their nods, she teleported them all to Metropolis only thirty feet from H'el, Superman, Supergirl and Superboy. The injured young man was near comatose, and quite out of it.

"You again? I thought I killed you?" H'el snarled out. "I won't make that mistake again."

"Let go of Superboy," Wonder Girl shouted as she rushed forward only to be swatted aside.

"Wakey time, Superboy!" Shelinaria said as she healed all of his bruises instantly.

Superboy came to and looked around. "Not this again..."

"Why do you defend this clone? He's an abomination! A Kon! They only know anger and will destroy this world!" H'el shouted out angrily.

"Really? The only one I see attacking people senselessly is you, H'el!" Shelinaria threw out her hand to launch a lightning bolt at the scarred being in a Kryptonian kirtle. "Are you a clone?"

That actually caused him to grunt and snarl in pain.

"Why are you attacking him!? He only wants to bring back Krypton?" Supergirl shouted.

Shelinaria thought for a split second. "A laudable goal. Yet I find that your actions, attacking someone with intent to kill, do not match your words," she called out to H'el.

That stopped Supergirl for a long second.

"She's right," Superman said as he landed with Wonder Girl and put her back on her feet, having returned from recovering her from her flight.

"What are you saying?" H'el demanded.

"A man dedicated to saving a world would not think to so easily murder people," Superman said in a serious tone of voice.

"Yeah!" Kid Flash exclaimed.

"Don't interrupt the Superman," Bunker said as he clapped his hand to his masked forehead.

"Oh, right."

That just got Solstice to snicker silently.

"Fools! I will save Krypton over the unworthy, filthy world called Earth," H'el said in a harsh, angry voice.

"Why would saving a world be over the safety of another one?" Superman asked. "Especially when the former is dead and gone."

"That can not be true!" Supergirl yelled. "Krypton can not be gone. Everyone keeps saying it, but I don't believe it without proof!"

"Allegedly destroyed, then. I would be more than happy to try and save Krypton. Or its people," Shelinaria said calmly.

"We all would. We're trying to be heroes here, aren't we?" Superboy said as he stood up.

"Kara, I saw it. Krypton is only twenty-seven light years away," Superman said as he tried to lay his hand on her shoulder.

"You could be wrong!" the younger Kryptonian shouted back

'Superman, let me see the memory with my telepathy,' the Goddess of Excellence telepathed to him.

He nodded mentally, bringing up the memory.

"Kara, right? My name is Shelinaria and I would like to try and show you what Superman meant- ARGH!" she suddenly screamed out as H'el attacked her telepathically through her open mind link. Both she and the aspect back at the bungalow both collapsed. In gotham city a young girl in a caped hood slumped over on a roof, deeper into a shadow.

"That's enough," Superman said. In a blur of super speed, he punched H'el hard enough to send him flying. When he charged him again to follow up his attack though, Superman was swatted away across the horizon.

"Oh, man. That is not good," Kid Flash said.

"Titans, together!" Wonder Girl shouted.

"For some reason I think 'Titans Go!' would be better," Superboy muttered to himself.

All of the Titans charged forward, for all the good they were doing. H'el seemed immune to anything they could do and they could only desperately dodge his attacks or be swatted unconscious like mooks.

"H'el, what are you doing?" Supergirl called out. Suddenly she saw the Titans and Superman attacking her. "No, stop! Kal-El, what are you doing?"

"What's wrong with her?" Solstice asked as she blasted blue energy at H'el after he took a punch from Superman, swatted him away again and then punched Supergirl hard enough in her solar plexus to make her gasp for air.

Bunker's latest wall of purple bricks was again blasted away. "I don't know. Why's he attacking us all?"

Shelinaria managed to push off the ground and to one knee. This scarred Kryptonian (with some very non-Kryptonian powers, she noted) was seriously able to defeat all of them. She did not dare try to fight him telepathically, as his powers operated on a level above her even now. But she could get an idea of what was happening to Supergirl.

'Kara, what you are seeing is a lie. The Titans, your cousin and I are not attacking you. H'el is-' And then Shelinaria screamed in agony again.

"I really need to kill you," H'el growled as he picked up the gist of her thought. "And so I shall." And with that, he shredded her form into atoms.

The Teen Titans were shocked long enough that H'el blasted them away. He then used his telekinesis in response to Superboy's touch TK sense to attack him at his cellular level all the while monologuing about the horrors of clones. H'el did not seem impressed with their actions or Superboy's rebuttals. With one last blast, he crushed Superboy into a ten foot crater. Then he disappeared with Supergirl before Superman could return again.

"Gone," Superman said with a frown.

"She's just gone!" Kid Flash exclaimed as he recovered fastest and zoomed around looking at everyone to make sure they were alive.

Solstice frowned (which was hard to see with her shadowed face). "Where are her remains? There should be blood and other stuff, right?"

That was when Shelinaria reappeared in a flash of rainbow light. "Where did he go?"

All of them (except Superman) were blinking at that.

"Um, didn't you just get killed?" Bunker asked.

"Yes, he destroyed that body because of the fact that I'm a threat to him. Superman, he's mentally manipulating Supergirl with illusions and a form of empathy. If she were stable, she could ignore the effect, but she did not sound too stable," Shelinaria explained in a worried tone. She blinked as she took in the beaten up heroes. "But first, time to help you guys."

Kid Flash's shoulder almost popped back into place and he felt no pain, while Wonder Girl's bruises faded quite easily. Bunker blinked as his broken leg bone suddenly snapped back together. He was in a lot of pain, but only left with bruises. Solstice whimpered as she felt things inside herself shift around.

"Again with the genetic damage?" the young goddess complained as she moved over to Superboy.

"dying-" the young man managed to get out.

"What's going on?" Superman demanded as he frantically started to scan Superboy with his x-ray vision.

"A genetic cascade effect. His tri-DNA is unzippering throughout his whole body. H'el probably thought it was fatal, just leaving him to die painfully. You and Solstice need to both try to not get hit with attacks that I need to regenerate for a while, because I'm pretty much hitting my limit here. All better." With a pat on Superboy's chest she then grabbed his free hand. "Besides, Superboy, you need to meet Clara. I'm sure she will adore you."

"Clara?" he asked in stupification as he allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.

"Something for later, Superblunder. We need to track him down and beat his scarred ass into the ground," Wonder Girl nearly snarled out.

"Caring is obviously your strong suite, blondie," Superboy replied sardonically.

That caused Shelinaria to jerk in surprise and then stare at the scarlet and gold garbed super heroine.

Bunker coughed. "They-sorta-hate-each-other."

"I got that. Finally." Shelinaria started kneading her forehead. "I've made a mess of it, haven't I?"

"I need to head out soon, but I do want to talk to you Superboy... Actually, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to, uh, well do a genetic test to make sure you are okay." Superman was stretching the truth, as he wanted to verify the Kryptonian DNA inside the young clone.

"At least you aren't trying to smash my face in," Superboy commented sarcastically.

"That's for the evil clones that don't eat the cookies," Shelinaria said slyly, causing Wonder Girl to flush angrily.

"Mind if we tag along, Superman? Kon-El is sort of a bro and he's got that wacko after him, you know," Bunker asked carefully. I mean, this was Superman.

"Kon-El?" the Man of Steel asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, Supergirl called me that and I... really don't have a name," Superboy admitted.

Sheila made a frustrated face at that. "Kon mean abomination in Kryptonian. Well, closer to gene freak abomination," she told him. "And not usually said in polite company."

Bunker winced as he didn't intend to call his friend something vulgar.

"Are we sure that Supergirl girl was being mind controlled?" Wonder Girl asked with a sour expression. "Given it sounds like she and H'el have the same opinion on clones." She didn't even like Superboy and still didn't think calling him a gene freak abomination was a good thing to do.

"She is being controlled," Superman stated forcefully. "Though she and I are going to have a long talk about calling anyone something like that after this is over."

* * *

><p>"Fortress of Solitude, hmm?" Shelinaria then spotted something that made her wince. "Lovecraft wasn't totally incorrect that viewing bent space-time was not the safest thing for your sanity."<p>

"I have no idea what she's talking about," Solstice said in a very confused tone.

"Tesseracts, hmm?" Superboy asked.

"To some degree. Inside is more than bigger than the outside."

"We should be pretty safe here. The Fortress of Solitude is the most impregnable structure on the planet," Superman stated simply.

Kid Flash started to take off, only have to Superman snatch him by the back on the neck. "Hey!"

"Don't run off. I have several endangered and very dangerous animals from different planets here. Things that can affect me," he explained.

Wonder Girl snorted. "Cute."

It was only a few minutes later that Superman led them into a bio-lab. Superboy soon found laying down on a table and being scanned by the advanced technology of the Kryptonians.

Superman just didn't seem to care he was a clone, unlike the other two Kryptonians. He gathered from Supergirl and H'El that they had serious issues with beings like him.

"Interesting. Its more two and a half nucleonic twists. The interconnecting molecules have been stretched allowing them to braid the the disparate connections... Do I have something on my face?" Shelinaria asked with a hint of worry.

"Wow, you study Kryptonian medical stuff?" Kid Flash asked in awe.

"Yeah, I can barely read any of that," Superboy said ruefully.

"Hmm? Oh, I just learned written low and scientific Kryptonese. But the genetics is fascinating," she continued on.

"Oh, great. In some other reality I'm a geek," Wonder Girl exclaimed in disbelief.

Superman sounded like he was strangling for just a second. "You learned Kryptonese by reading my mind?"

"Er, no. I have the mystical ability to understand any written or vocal communication. I picked up Cantonese in about two minutes when I was helping with a flood."

"...Even Querl would find that impressive," Superman muttered to himself. He was surprised when he was responded to.

"We were still trying to agree on 11-D chess rules," she said with shrug as she moved to look at the screen closer.

"How would that even work?" Bunker asked.

"Are you pretty good at Nth Dimensional Equations?"

"Forget I asked," he replied quickly. He was completely sure even trying to figure out what that was would give him a headache.

That was when H'el reappeared above them, his kirtle swirling around his legs. "So this is that you have done with your Kryptonian technology. The last remnants of a proud civilization. Cluttered with the uncouth and unwashed," the scarred Kryptonian grated out angrily.

"Oh, shit," Kid Flash cried out as he ducked and zoomed to the side.

Shelinaria had leaped into the air even as she enacted a quick plan.

"And the abomination, here in the heart of what should be Krypton's purity. Begone, all of you!" H'el demanded and then unceremoniously dumped all seven of them outside in the arctic conditions.

"Now what do we do?" Solstice asked as she started to get really cold.

"We need to get some shelter out of this wind or some of us are going to have problems." Wonder Girl frowned, as it looked like only Solstice, Kid Flash and (to a lesser extent) herself were even noticing the cold.

"Superboy, can you make a quick igloo with a window facing the fortress?" Shelinaria asked.

"Good idea," he said, instantly putting the plan into effect. Blocks of snow rose up from the ice sheet, quickly making a large room and domed roof.

"Wow... igloos really do work," Kid Flash said in surprise as felt a bit warmer now.

"Superboy, if you could make a door and tunnel, just like an igloo?" Superman asked the younger hybrid.

"Oh, sure." It was just a moment or two of work. He even added a door plug made of ice.

Superman and Shelinaria zipped out even as he went to work on making a few windows by compressing the ice and aligning the crystals correctly.

"You don't have to follow. I'm going to try to get back inside my home," Superman declared.

"It's just having someone to watch your back. I'm not sure main force will actually work against what you have there." In fact, the young goddess was almost sure that brute effort was destined to fail completely.

It only took Superman about five minutes to agree as Shelinaria seemingly watched on.

"He's a nasty creep, playing on her grief and amplifying her denial of her loss," she finally said. And she was getting the inkling that she wasn't going to like what he had planned.

"You don't have an idea of what he's aiming for?" Superman asked curiously.

"I haven't studied what technology you have and your full history, Superman. So I'm operating with a lot of blanks that I'm having to guess about. You obviously have a plan?" she asked in return.

"Yes, but I need a second opinion from someone that doesn't suffer from your lack of information."

"And you sound so terribly thrilled."

"That's... an understatement. Stay here and I'll be back in about half an hour. With that, he wooshed off at full speed.

She was but a moment behind him. And losing ground. Even at over MACH 6, which was a tad ludicrous. So she was a blur that zipped after Superman into an overly designed building. Noting him staying in the air, she followed him in.

"I thought I told you to stay there?" Superman said in a stern tone.

"Yes, daddy. But unless you can hear Lex Luthor lying, I think you want me here. That Ammonia Sulfate is nasty stuff," she said as she wiped bleeding tears from her face.

"That... could actually be useful," the Man of Steel admitted. " Though General Ommah is going to be peeved when he finds out that you followed me into here no matter what you can do."

"This is a little elaborate for a normal human, no matter how smart," Shelinaria noted curiously as they continued on down the twisting corridors.

"I played to Luthor's vanity by goading him into making a prison even he couldn't escape from. It seems to be working," Superman said as they finally entered into the main cell.

"Antimatter cannons and total observation from all angles. Interesting." The ammonia sulfate was a little less intense in here, or she was becoming slightly accustomed to it.

"Ah, Superman," Lex Luthor called out, cleanly shaved and quite visible inside his transparent cage.

"You know the drill, Luthor. Shackles," was the verbal order from the hero.

Luthor submitted and put himself into the shackles, which barely allowed him to move slowly and unable to reach anything below his chest.

The sparred verbally, with Luthor taunting Superman with information that should have been impossible to know. About H'el and the fact that he had taken over the Fortress of Solitude.

"But your new sidekick is quite the quiet one. She hasn't said anything," Luthor suddenly said, turning to study the girl with the glowing hair. "The one that claims to be a goddess. Yet H'el... seemed to kick the hell out of you, didn't he?"

"I make no claim to omniscience or omnipotence. In fact, my strength and durability are very nice, secondary abilities," she replied casually.

"Oh? So you think you are rather smart? Interesting. So answer me this question and I will answer Superman's question to verify his own thoughts about what H'el is going to do in his Fortress," Lex demanded with a lecherous smile on his scarred face.

"That isn't why she's here, Luthor," Superman said suddenly.

"If she doesn't try to answer, I won't help you. Besides, it would be nice to have someone to mentally challenge me other than yourself, Kryptonian," the insane genius said with an almost sneer.

"There are all sorts of genius, Lex Luthor. Many people are geniuses at what they do," Sheila noted. "But ask your question."

"How many ways are there to escape this prison that I could use?"

Superman sucked in a breath.

"Ah, I wondered at that. Give me a second. I haven't studied this prison, nor did I make it." She closed her eyes for about a minute, thinking furiously. Then she opened them.

"This is supposed to be an inescapable prison," Superman noted. The US government and he had spent enough resources to beggar nations to make sure.

"Sixteen. Only ten require outside assistance that you can contact at any time," she replied. "The hack on the antimatter cannons using the reflective edge of your razor blade was a bit inspired. Timed pulses would blow out all the seals and evacuate the ammonia sulfate in about ten seconds."

Superman's jaw dropped at that.

And Luthor was no longer smiling. "There are only fifteen." He knew, as he had been studying his designs to find flaws for months.

"I'm not going to explain them all, but they are there. I suppose I could figure a few more out, but I'm really pressed for time. This is the first time I have ever laid eyes on this prison before, after all," she replied blandly. "But you didn't lie about the fact that you know fifteen ways out. Check, Mr. Luthor."

The arch-nemesis of Superman glared at her even as he clenched his fists in the shackles. "Fine, you answered my question. So H'el, even with all the power sources has will just use the power source of Kandor as a first stage actuator in turning the Solar System into a artificial black hole singularity crunch and mini big bang to power his insane device to try and change the past destruction of Krypton. Which you already knew, of course, Superman."

"I did, but it was nice to have a second opinion. But I may not have to return to do that anymore," Superman said dismissively.

"Don't you dare turn your back to me, Superman!" Luthor shouted, furious now.

"We should have just asked Batman," Sheila mused. "Less hassle that way. He would at least have some ideas on how to attack H'el."

"Goodbye, Luthor." With that, Superman turned and floated off slowly.

Shelinaria purged Luthor's body of poisons, taking great care to make sure that Luthor's biotech quantum mental link molecules were evacuated. Then she turned on the systems that would clean the floor down to the molecular level. "Oh, there went ten of your escape plans down the drain. Check and Mate." She floated out behind Superman.

"What? How? You stupid bitch!" Luthor shouted. He tried to activate the quantum entanglement link, only to get... nothing.

"So we have about an hour before H'el destroys the solar system?" Shelinaria asked Superman.

"Correct. Which means we need to call in the Justice League." Superman was very grim and tense, flickering off at high speed.

Once they were outside, he grabbed her arm and then activated his Justice League Beacon. With a boom, they disappeared.

* * *

><p>Superman looked over all of the assembled heroes. Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Flash, Batman, the Teen Titans (minus Red Robin) and Shelinaria. They were all in The Block as it appeared to be the only place they knew for sure that H'el could not listen in on their thoughts.<p>

"We have about half an hour before H'el and Supergirl destroy the solar system in an attempt to rewrite the past and save Krypton. We need to breach the defenses of the most impregnable fortress on the planet and take the fight to H'el and convince Supergirl that this is the wrong way. Batman, you've outline a plan of attack on four vectors?"

The Dark Knight nodded.

Shelinaria coughed. "Or I could tell the Fortress to open the door and turn off all the normal power."

"Through that forcefield that is stopping all of my attempts to hack it? And exactly how long will the power stay off due to that?" Cyborg asked seriously.

Dr. Veritas's mouth was open slightly.

"I can see it, so I can communicate with it. Neat computer trick, basically. I do have to work a little hard to break the quantum null-infinity encryption though. I should be able to crash the computer for at least thirty seconds."

Superman shared a look with Batman, Wonder Woman and the Flash. "I think that simplifies things greatly. Can you open both main doors?"

Shelinaria just nodded at that.

"She's scary smart, like that witch in that book, right?" Kid Flash asked Bunker.

Bunker nodded his head frantically.

"You're with me, Kid Flash. We'll tag team Supergirl with all the speed we've got, okay?" the scarlet speedster said to the young namesake. He clapped a hand on his shoulder in familiarity.

"Really? I thought you were going to demand we stay out of it?" Kid Flash blurted back.

"Shelinaria here brought up that we really should try to mentor teen heroes, especially ones that emulate us," Superman admitted. "So, are you good to back me up, Superboy?"

"Born, well, vatted ready," the younger looking teen said.

"So that means I have to go with Wonder Woman? Great," the alien-armor wearing girl asked, sounding none too happy.

"What about me?" Bunker asked.

"Or me?" the final Teen Titan also asked. The glowing blue light cracks in her totally black features showed that she felt a little upset.

"You are with me, Bunker. Red Robin has some things going on in Gotham and is off the communication grid, but this is... too important to not respond to. So can you vary the size of those blocks? Or the shape even slightly?" Batman asked the young latino.

"Um, maybe?" Bunker replied feeling nervous and bit embarrassed to not have a definite answer for the Dark Knight.

"And you are with me, Solstice. Whatever you do, don't hold back against H'el or Supergirl, okay?" Shelinaria said.

"You are taking me on as a mentor?" the Indian girl asked in surprise.

"Well, you aren't my android demigoddess daughter, but I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Damn, I wanted a sidekick," Cyborg mused out loud.

Shelinaria just raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, no way. Let's go people."

Superman looked over all of them. "Justice League, Teen Titans, it's time. Victor, boom tube us just outside the Fortress."

BOOOM.

Inside the Fortress, screens lit up as H'el was made aware of the return of the heroes. He sneered at them before all the lights went off and everything went pitch black.

"H'el, what's going on? What happened to the Fortress?" Kara Zor-El asked of the pale, scarred Kryptonian.

The emergency lights kicked on, but the fastest of the heroes were already there. Superman's opening punch blasted H'el through six bulkheads and away from Supergirl.

"Flash, change of plans. Grab the rainbow crystal three feet in right there," Shelinaria shouted as she sifted through all the information the Fortress of Solitude had gathered for her.

The Flash did not even nod as he took an impossible ninety degree turn and vibrated through the assembling Star Chamber that used to be H'el's spaceship. The Star Chamber stopped humming and glowing.

"Whoa, I have to learn how to do that," Kid Flash said. "And hey, pretty girl! You do realize that the scarred dude is playing you, right?"

"No, he's promised to save Krypton!" the distraught Kryptonian blonde shouted. "Get out of here!" She rushed at her full speed to punch at Kid Flash, fulling intent on killing him.

One perfectly executed Aikido throw at superspeed from Shelinaria smashed Supergirl through a weak point of the spaceship and then through four walls behind it.

"Kid Flash, catch! Get it out of here but be ready to return it at a moment's notice," the young goddess shouted as she snatched the green crystal from the hole that she had made with Supergirl, tossing it to him casually.

"Gotcha," the younger speedster said, zooming off with the large chunk of green Kryptonite.

The rest of the team showed up, just in time for for Supergirl, Superman and H'el to return. Supergirl's fist impacted with the force of a small earthquake.

Superman and H'el pounded on each other, shaking the whole building with their fury.

"My Star Chamber! My ship! What have you done!?" H'el shouted in absolute fury.

"We decided that your taste in decor lacked feeling," Superboy said in a snide tone as he blasted out with his TK to help hit H'el at the same time as Superman.

"Away!" H'el shouted at Superman, blasting him back outside.

"Smash that ship," Shelinaria called out, even as she summoned her lighting at full force.

Wonder Woman just smiled. "I'll keep H'el off our backs."

"Diana, don't hold back. Just like you did not hold back against Apollo," her niece shouted out. She and most of the other heroes were tearing apart the Star Chamber down to spare recycling materials. In fact, Solstice was relishing the chance to really let loose.

The scarred kryptonian sneered. "You think you are more powerful than Superman?" he asked as he smashed Superman with a backhand so hard that he left the atmosphere.

Wonder Woman's bracers hit the ground with a clang. "Yes."

"What?" the Flash blurted out as he helped keep everyone from being hit by H'el's telekinetic attacks that were tearing up the room.

Wonder Woman's fist lashed out at another streamer of H'el's kinetic energy burst. As they smashed against each other, it allowed Wonder Woman to get ten feet closer to the floating insane Kryptonian.

"Hey, Supergirl? Did you ever hear that super senses suck when you crank the decibels?" Cyborg shouted as one of his arms opened five panels and unleashed a huge sonic blast. "We might have a problem, people. Superman's still leaving orbit from that hit."

"Superboy, stay away from Supergirl and H'el," Shelinaria called out even as Wonder Woman punched another of H'el's attacks away from herself.

"What? No way! I want a piece of him for trying to kill me," the hybrid shouted as he blasted Supergirl in the back with a wave of metal thrown as hard as he could with his telekinesis.

The young goddess thought to herself that it shouldn't hurt him too bad. "Kid Flash, now!" She then charged Supergirl at her own best speed, slamming a knife hand into her solar plexus again and flying them towards H'el.

"Begone!" the madman shouted, lashing out with his teleportive ability at Wonder Woman. Only to widen his eyes in surprise as the amplifiers in the Fortress actually worked in reverse to cancel his power.

Kid Flash appeared and slammed the chunk of kryptonite into the back of H'el's head in a flash of yellow.

"Ugh! No, how could you-?" he asked as he collapsed to the ground. "I can not fail."

Supergirl and Superboy were also affected, gasping in pain.

"Oh, that's why you said to back off. Stupid me," the clone said.

"Stay down," the amazon demigoddess called out, smashing H'el's face so hard that she cratered the metal floor under him for fifty feet.

"And take that. And that! And that!" Kid Flash called out each time he continued to hit H'el as he zipped back in.

"Stop it! You are killing him!" Supergirl shouted, then clapped her hands over her ears as Cyborg hit her with another sonic attack.

Solstice joined in, blasting Supergirl. Which actually made her feel slightly better. "Oops. I think I should stop."

Superman finally came back after having been stopped on his exit of Earth orbit by smashing into some cosmic being that was as large as a moon. He was not sure what it had been doing, but he had the feeling that it may have approved that they were stopping the madman H'el. "Kara, stop. He was going to destroy the Earth and the Solar System, killing everyone to make his dream a reality. That is too high a cost to pay for even our homeworld to be saved."

"And Supergirl, that does not mean we can not take actions to save some of those from Krypton, but there is no reason that we have to use such a foolhardy plan that requires collapsing a star into a black hole and then a singularity nova," Shelinaria said in Kryptonian.

"I know. I knew for a while, but I just couldn't stop myself. Part of me wanted to go home so badly," the blonde kryptonian said even as she sobbed. "They're my family!"

Superboy bit back remarking it didn't sound like that good of a place given the way she and H'El had treated him. "Say, where is Batman and Bunker?"

"We were making sure that the quantum computer array here does not reboot without replacing key components," Batman said as he stepped out of the shadows. "Good, a short fight."

"Ah, man. I made this armor for nothing," Bunker said, as he showed off his scale looking armor on his chest, made of small purple glowing bricks.

"What's happening to H'el?" Supergirl suddenly shouted, tears wiped from her face.

The scarred, insane kryptonian was fading away, the paradox of his existence having been interrupted by forces that could derail his self-fulfilling prophecy and impossible origin.

"Huh, something he was supposed to do today would have created himself in the past," Shelinaria deduced after a minute.

"We going to remember him and not suddenly wonder why we're all here?" Bunker asked.

"I suppose that depends on how good your memory is and how much interaction you've done with time travellers, really."

"I don't think we know any time travellers," Wonder Girl remarked.

"I'll remember this then," Superman commented.


	3. New DCU - Forever Evils

The Justice League's satellite was, for once, heavily crowded. The various heroes that had helped out when Atlantis invaded and even some of the members of the 'Justice League International' were milling around.

Goldrush was chatting with the Flash. "So I got my powers from the divorce. He got the dogs."

The Flash looked just a bit stunned. "What type of dogs?" he asked.

The robot Platinum was introducing herself, using her full designation. Shelinaria was pretty sure that she was not quite ready for live combat.

"Evaluating the others?" Wonder Woman asked curiously.

"A bit. They are potential team mates. The Element Woman is a new face to me," the Goddess of Battle and Excellence said to the slightly older woman. "I'm keeping an eye on Platinum, just in case."

She caught snippets of Batman talking to Cyborg and Black Lightning, Superman with Firestorm and Ice, Vixen was chatting up Aquaman and Blue Devil, Zatanna chatting with Black Canary and Steel. Nightwing was standing alone for the moment, while Element Woman was trying to start a conversation with Fire.

"Oh?" Diana asked.

"I suspect that we might need to restrain her from hurting someone. Like herself." Shelinaria gave her a little shrug.

"Hello, Shelinaria. I am Platinum, I am the property of the United States Army-" the robot started to say.

"I heard your designation already, thank you Platinum." She stretched out her mind to connect to the confused robot. It had been hacked. _'Batman, Platinum has been hacked. Be ready for an attack.'_ Her mind then sharded, splitting into thirteen selves. She was focusing on everything possible.

Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly at what she found.

_'Don't make any overt reaction. We need to identify the mole,'_ he replied back mentally as he did not appear to move at all.

It was as Platinum was shaking hands with Firestorm that the poor robot lashed out, trying to strangle him to put out the fire on his head.

"What? Hey!" the dual person merged into one hero yelled in confusion.

"She's stronger than a normal person! Luckily, so am I," Vixen shouted out as she called up the strength of a bear. She started to pull and fight against the semi-liquid platinum that the robot was made from.

The fight went back and forth as the Justice League (and visitors) attempted to contain the robot, even as Cyborg, his father and Doctor Magnus tried to stop them from destroying Platinum's responsometer.

Finally Firestorm was convinced to transmute all of the robot's platinum sheath into air.

"The responsometer! It's going to-"

"Be caught by one of the two speedsters in the room?" Shelinaria asked as she plucked out of the air easily. She gave a wink to the Flash. "Maybe I should call myself the fastest woman alive?"

"Hey, that's my tag line!" the speedster rejoined in good humor.

A woman suddenly grew from microscopic size, shooting up to full size where she had been right below the responsometer. "Man, I missed my big entrance. So, um, is it too late for tryouts?"

"Who is she?"

"An unsung hero," Cyborg said. "Glad you could make it."

"But we need to clean up this mess," Batman said. "We'll contact people later."

Everyone trooped to the teleporters. After the last person had left, it flashed again revealing that Shelinaria had returned. She then checked to make sure the Atom hadn't faked leaving.

Superman and Wonder Woman both turned to her.

"We said we would-" the Amazon started to say.

"She came back because she spotted that we were about to be attacked," Batman interrupted his teammate. "Platinum was forced into her erratic behavior by an outside force."

The rest of the league was now frowning and unhappy looking.

"Why didn't you say anything to us?" Aquaman demanded angrily. He hated it when Batman did this.

"He told me to just observe so that we could act, not just react. Cyborg, your systems were hacked. All of your systems were hacked," the goddess explained.

"What?" The Cyborg said in surprise.

"Your secure servers were hacked and copied down to Earth and some malicious code was left in your systems that look to be the groundwork to take over your body. Catastrophically," she explained with a little nod of her head.

"My systems are showing all clear. And no one knows my systems better than me," Victor said as he narrowed his one eye angrily. His cybernetic eye flashed red.

"What about that Brother Eye?" the Flash said carefully.

Shelinaria frowned right back at him, quelling the urge to try and shut him off. "Let me show you where I found it." She put her hand on his chest and then linked her mind to his computers, showing him the ingeniously hidden code. If she hadn't seen it actually being put in, she would likely not have be able to spot it either.

"Shit. How? That didn't come through any of my data feeds," he shouted angrily.

"This is an attack on the League then," Superman said. "How do we know you did not-"

"Clark, don't go there. We can prove this easily," Wonder Woman said as she pulled off her lasso.

The young goddess let them wrap the lasso around her hands.

"Were you the one that hacked Cyborg?" she demanded.

"Technically, yes. Because I was watching the hacker. I was also connected to Platinum and the computers, while telepathically communicating with Batman to ferret out who was most likely the hacker. But I bet he's already deduced it just from the situation and inference," she replied as she nodded to the Dark Knight.

"The Atom. She was here longer than she let on and was about to 'save the day' I believe before Shelinaria caught the Responsometer. Neatly ingratiating herself into our midst as a spy." Batman's voice was gravelly and low, a dangerous sign. "I told you allowing more people to join the League was a bad idea."

The rest of the League was slowly nodding at that.

"Actually, except for myself, the female Atom, Element Woman and Goldrush, they had all been members of the old reality's Justice League," Shelinaria explained to them. "Booster Gold even was a long time member."

"Vixen? Booster Gold? You have to be kidding us?" the Flash exclaimed.

"I trusted Booster Gold to lead a version of the Justice League," Batman informed Flash. "What does that tell you about him?"

"I thought you were putting him into a position to prove that he's not League material, actually." The scarlet speedster was really frowning now.

"We need the assistance now more than ever, Batman. So we need to make a decision. Who are we going to accept into the League?" Superman said.

"Shelinaria. She can easily help and she already spotted our attacker," Wonder Woman immediately noted, getting all of them to agree with nods of their heads.

"Hey, is someone going to get the Atom?" Cyborg butted in. He had enough problems not being sure if he was some ghost or echo of Victor Stone, but finding out the Atom intended to have a new program take his place was even worse.

"We are, by allowing her to join so we can watch her," Batman said as he somehow managed to loom in the shadows, his eyes narrowed in intense concentration.

Aquaman nodded. "Ah, that makes sense. Her powers aren't much of a threat directly and we can watch her."

Shelinaria had a feeling Aquaman had no idea what Atom's powers could do.

"Firestorm is ready to commit to the Justice League full time, as was Element Woman," Superman said, getting another round of nods.

"I would suggest Zatanna. While Diana and I are very mystical, we aren't spell casters per se." Shelinaria nodded to the other Olympian.

"She's on the Justice League Dark with Constantine. I'm not even sure why we invited her," Batman said as he worked with Cyborg at a computer console.

"Which means she can be the contact between our two teams. That gives the impression that we are working together, rather than they are just stealing our name," Wonder Woman said as she clenched her fists.

"When they did start calling themselves the Justice League?" Flash asked in curiosity, his brows furrowed as he thought.

"Since they adopted the name from A.R.G.U.S. and decided to use it," Batman informed him. "Months ago."

They all looked at each other for a long moment, looking up from their work.

"So exactly how much are we telling the new members about the Atom?" Cyborg asked.

"Nothing," Batman ordered. "Only us. We need to make contingencies and check backgrounds. I have a suspicion that this all leads back to A.R.G.U.S. Don't trust anything to the computers."

"I'm part computer, Batman," Cyborg noted coldly.

"I can help with that, Cyborg. A system outside the system and building an immune response to the infection that should be invisible to our super hacker," Shelinaria said quickly as she patted his silver arm. "I have some experience in putting you back together."

"You do? Well, at least that's something."

"We have work to do," the dark knight said as he headed to the teleporters.

* * *

><p>Artemis, goddess of the moon, smashed through the window at the Wayne bungalow late at night. She had bloody murder on her mind.<p>

"I am here for the youngest child of Zeus," the goddess of the hunt declared. She was glowing a white-blue and had antlers on her head, but otherwise had only the vague features of a naked woman.

Zola screamed in fear even as she tried to protect her son by interposing her body. She had not expected an attack here in her own base.

The young Chris Kent stepped in the way in a blur, shattering through the door. "I won't let you take my cousin," he said with a very stubborn look on his face. He had already clicked a button on his watch, but at night he would not charge up quickly.

"Mortal, you dare stand up to a goddess?" Artemis asked in derision.

He answered with a burst of heat vision to her face. "Leave my family alone!"

"You brat!" the goddess spat, only to have a fist slam into her face before she could turn him into a tree or animal. She sailed from the house and across the yard and into the trees with a crash.

"Get out of my house," a glowing haired goddess demanded of her. "Or do you only fight mortals, aunt?"

"The fake daughter of Athena dares claim to be a goddess? You are nothing more than an usurper!" The goddess of the hunt lashed out with slashes of moonlight that flew through the air like waves of cutting air. "Show me your might, goddess!" It was obvious from her expression she did not believe the glowing-haired goddess's claim.

Each of them that would have hit Shelinaria or the bungalow were blocked or deflected by the sword in her hand. "If you insist," the younger goddess said, her armor shining under the moonlight. She reached into a shadow in the air next to her with her free hand and pulled out a large, ten foot long rifle. It made a high pitched hum and then spat out something that cracked through the air.

Artemis had leaped into the air, so it was only five thousand feet of trees and hillside behind her that was shredded in a twenty foot path. "You use a gun? How gauche!" She reached up and removed her moon necklace.

"I made this relic singularity rifle myself, so it's hardly just a normal gun, auntie. And a goddess of war uses weapons of war and this definitely is one of them." She dropped the gun, letting it dissipate back into shadows as Artemis charged into melee.

"Fool! That child will destroy us all!" the moon goddess shouted as she lashed out with her power.

"Because we were evil? Because he will be evil?" Shelinaria asked as she flicker-dodged bursts of moon light energy.

"You sound like Athena! Smug! Superior! Thinking you are so smart!" Artemis snapped out.

"As opposed to just jumping to conclusions that he's going to kill you by looking at you funny? Killing someone due to some vague prophecy is almost self-fulfilling! Of course he's going to want to kill you when he finds out you tried to murder him in the crib!" The younger goddess was infuriated at her elder's actions. She slammed lightning enhanced fists into Artemis's jaw; left, right, left and then an uppercut. "Asking questions sounds like not being an idiot!"

"Why should I care? We are gods! Mortal morality is for mortals! You are in my domain!" Artemis shouted, holding up her hands to control the woods on the edge of Wayne Manor to try and entrap the interloping goddess.

It was like trying to catch a fly with a string, much to her frustration.

"So it's perfectly fine as long as the one hounding the mother continually to kill her child is a god? I guess Hera was perfectly in the right wanting to kill you and your brother. Because she was a goddess!" Shelinaria narrowed her eyes as she danced between the grasping branches and vines. Come on, become more angry and sloppy.

Artemis actually paused at that. Her body of moonlight suddenly dimmed for a moment. "Die, you bitch!" she screamed out, blasting with a huge measure of energy that exploded a hundred foot wide crater into the ground.

The whole mountain shook and part of the cliff broke off to fall into the Atlantic Ocean below.

Down in the Batcave, Alfred Pennyworth trotted across the shaking floor carefully. On the screens there were different views of Shelinaria and Artemis in combat near the mansion.

"Oh, dear," he said. "I had better call Master Wayne."

The ground quaked again as Shelinaria punched Artemis through a stand of trees and into the mountain side.

Hera was watching from the broken window of the bungalow. She pulled out a cigarette, only for Zola to take it away.

"No smoking around the babies," the mortal mother of the young demigod stated.

That got a belly laugh from the last adult present, Lennox the demigod that was made of 'organic stone' and had a head that was literally rock hard.

"So how long will it be for that mortal and his friends to show up?" Hera asked with a sigh. She had felt her power returning ever so slowly. She wanted to be at her full power to fight Artemis herself. And wreak ruin upon that uppity Apollo. He had weakened her greatly, but just proclaiming yourself lord of Olympus does not grant any power. You are king of Olympus because you have the power. It was frustrating that Shelinaria had seen through her loss of 'immortality' and pretending to be just mortal while also noticing that she was weakened. The worst of both worlds on that gambit, lost to the interloper.

Lennox leaned out to watch the two glowing figures battle along the coast (and moving away from the mansion and Gotham City, he noted). "She claimed to be a goddess of battle or war. Doubt she needs a bit of help. Probably just piss her off."

The voice from behind them surprised them all. "That doesn't mean you should wait for Artemis to come back if she actually wins. We should move the children to a different location for at least a while. Shelinaria will contact us when the coast is clear." Batman stepped out of the shadows behind them. "We are going into Gotham to a safe house. I have an armored vehicle outside."

"How the bleeding hell did you know what was going on?" Lennox asked suspiciously.

"You are in Gotham. That makes it my business to know." Batman then turned and walked back outside.

With a bit of grumbling, they followed suite.

Back in the air, both goddesses were showing a bit of wear and tear in themselves. "You aren't so impressive," Artemis said, panting slightly.

"I've been a goddess for two and a half years. What's your excuse?" Shelinaria shot back, then unleashed a lightning bolt from the heavens.

The moon goddess cried out in pain, even after using the forest to try and block some of the damage. "Lightning? I thought you said you were the daughter of Athena, not Zeus!"

"I am the adopted daughter of Athena. I'm not nearly as strong as Cassandra was nor capable of creating storms. Yet." Lightning crackled from her fists.

"Another sister! Hera must hate you! But don't worry about her, I'll leaving you bleeding to death while I deal with our young half-sibling." Artemis tried to back her words with her actions, but they were stalemated for the second.

So the new fist to the face was a total surprise, as Wonder Woman appeared and punched her down into the ground.

"Are you alright, Shelinaria?" Diana asked even as she landed on the ground next to Artemis. Her luminescent body's glow was dimmed now.

"I will be." She landed right next the taller brunette. Her bruises were fading away rapidly.

The slurred voice from the shadows surprised them both. "I can't believe you needed help to defeat Artemis."

Shelinaria just shook her head at Ares. He looked ancient. His bald head had a hat and his pant legs were soaked in blood. "That assumes that defeating her outright and with overwhelming force was my intention."

Ares frowned at that. "Damnation, you are just like Athena."

"Thank you for the kind compliment!"

"I'll take her back to her brother now. It's the least I can do." Ares picked up his younger sibling, hefting her carefully.

* * *

><p>Batman's heavy assault vehicle was full of people, making it quite cramped. But Lennox and Hera had refused to leave Zola alone. And the poor woman had needed the assistance of Christopher to help with Diane and Zeke. Poor Clara really hated what was going on and had to be held by Lennox.<p>

And even then the demigod son of Zeus found his organic stone flesh barely holding the toddler back. "What sort of bacon rashers did you raise this girl on? She's definitely the grand daughter of Zeus."

"Ani Shee! Ani sheeeeeee!" Clara shouted as Batman drove down the highway towards Gotham, just a few minutes away.

So the huge, eight foot tall figure that stepped in the way caused him to slam on the brakes. "Who is that?" he demanded as he started to back up the Bat ATV with a squeal of tires. (It was really more a tank than anything else.)

"I don't know, but he looks super. And mean. Really mean." Zola was very pale as she clutched Zeke to her bosom.

"You're going to have to be more specific," Batman remarked, then hit a switch on the controls. "Nevermind. Superman, I've got a situation."

The red-blue blur that appeared in between the Bat ATV and the giant man had a small grin. "I think it's more than a situation," he said aloud. "Who are you?"

The brutish man, easily topping eight feet just glared as his black scale armor made a quiet sh-shinking sound. "I am the First Born. There are demigods in that device that I will control... or kill."

"Not happening-" Superman started to say, only to be interrupted with a massive punch to his face. He felt himself hit something, but by the time the spots cleared from his eyes he was thousands of feet away and arcing back to the ground. He rubbed his jaw and touched his lip, coming away with blood. "Okay, he's more than a bit dangerous."

With a woosh, he headed back to slam his own punch into the First Born's face and sending him skidding into a huge groove into the ground.

The First Born got to his feet quickly, an insane smile on his face. "This will be a good warm up before I kill Apollo and take the throne of Olympus."

"Superman," Christopher called out even as he started to push the wreckage off his back. Cousin Zoe and her son Zeke had nearly been crushed, but the young boy had been just fast enough. "I think Batman is hurt."

"Get the children out of here," Batman called out as he managed to pull himself out of the wreckage of his Bat ATV. His right arm appeared to be broken. "I'll distract the First Born."

Superman disappeared with Zola and the two youngest children. He had his cape wrapped around them and the young mother, flying to a place that he knew that Batman would trust to keep them safe. Chris landed right behind him, fast enough that no one likely noticed them appearing in the office.

"Who is the old guy with a mustache?" the young Kryptonian asked.

"Commissioner Gordon? This woman and the children need protective custody," Superman said simply as he put down Zola.

Chris was holding Diane still while Zola was carefully holding Zeke and Clara.

"Superman? What is going on?" the commissioner demanded.

"No time, Batman is currently fighting a monster that can hurt me," Superman said, then disappeared in a blur.

Batman threw a stun grenade at the First Born's face even as he staggered backwards.

"You are just mortal? Just a man with weapons?" the First Born said, his craggy face twisting in a smile.

"Mortal men have come a long way since ancient Greece," Batman said, triggering the self destruct on his transport. The thermite ignited the metal and caught the god in its fiery embrace.

Yet Bruce had a feeling he was going to need something far stronger to keep that godling down.

He was proven right a second later as the First Born reappeared, ignoring the fires that burned his flesh. This was bad-

A blast of super breath put out the fires and froze the First Born in a huge block of ice. "Are you all right, Batman?"

"I've been better," he admitted.

The ice shattered like cheap glass. "A true warrior. I will enjoy crushing your bones to dust," the First Born said.

Superman narrowed his eyes, preparing to charge in and punch when someone beat him to that punch.

Wonder Woman's blow to the side the First Born's head knocked him for a loop and smashed him into the dark hillside outside of Gotham. "No further, monster! You face the Justice League this night."

"What do I care of mortals? I will crush that child of Zeus, smashing the prophecy that threatens me. No one shall rule Olympus but me," the giant god said as he stood back up. He had a wild, insane smile on his craggy features.

Superman stopped holding back as he was sure this being could take it. For the first time in an incredibly long time Superman put everything into his attack. Batman clasped his ear with his one good hand as the shock wave from the punch knocked him off of his feet.

The First Born flew through the top of a hill, Superman and Wonder Woman in pursuit. Superman blasted the First Born with a burst of heat vision at full power.

The First Born was on fire again, but just ran forward through the blasts of thermal energy.

"What is it going to take to drop him?" Superman called out.

"Magic," Wonder Woman replied as she willed a sword to appear in each hand. "For Olympus!"

She met his charge head on, ducking his first punches and then slicing into this bare chest.

"You do not have the power! None of you do! I was born and prophesied to be the one to take Olympus as my own! That is the birthright of the First Born of Zeus!"

Superman punched him in the face again, feeling the skin on his knuckles splitting. "This is like facing Doomsday all over again."

The crazed son of Zeus returned the punch of Superman with his arm-blade with punishing force, sending him flying. His other hand caught Wonder Woman by the neck and slammed her three feet into the granite ground below him.

"Superman's a good distraction," Shelinaria said as she appeared in a blur of speed. Her rifle was pointed at the First Born's face. The click of the trigger was swallowed up by the singularity shot. It atomized most of the skin on his face and scoured his eyes. That actually got the First Born to scream in pain.

Wonder Woman kicked his ankle as hard as possible, sending him staggering. Shelinaria pulled out a sword even as she sent back her rifle into its own pocket dimension.

Then the two attacked in unison as Superman flew back to the fight. They danced, spun and wove their swords in a ferocious blur of steel and blood. The Man of Steel flashed his heat vision in between them, charring the wounds.

He refused to go down, starting to heal even these wounds.

'Superman, Wonder Woman; both of you get ready to punch his face,' Shelinaria sent to them telepathically. 'Now!'

As they put everything into their punches, Shelinaria telekinetically held the back of his head steady against the punches that shattered the ground for hundreds of meters around.

The First Born stood for a long moment, then collapsed onto his face unconscious.

Superman was wary that even that onslaught would not keep the First Born down for long.

"Ouch," Shelinaria said as she pulled herself out of rubble of the crater. "You guys didn't even hit me and I hurt all over."

Wonder Woman smiled at her cousin as she helped her up. "We shall have to work on toughening you up a bit."

Night turned to day as the god of the sun appeared. Apollo floated over them, blinding them with his sunlight.

Superman felt his wounds healing and felt invigorated, feeling stronger by the moment.

"Diana." Apollo's lips twisted in a sneer. "Superman. And the alien goddess that claims to be of Olympus."

"Lord Apollo," Diana said as politely as she could manage. "Who is this being?"

"Perhaps you should ask Hera of that. The stories of the First Born are ancient. Some claim him to be even older than Ares," Apollo said. "You have defeated a threat to Olympus. For that... task... I will reward you by not attacking you and yours as long as they are no threat to my throne."

"You are gracious, Lord Apollo. Perhaps I may visit Olympus so that we might no longer be strangers. I wish no ill will from Olympus," Shelinaria said to the black-skinned god.

Apollo tilted his head, as if studying an insect. "Perhaps. You have a polite tongue, at least."

With another flash of sunlight, he and the First Born disappeared.

Superman rubbed his jaw. "This is not exactly what I thought I would run into here in Gotham. Is Batman healed?"

"Yes, I stopped by after making sure that Zola and the children were all right," Shelinaria explained. "What a mess."

The mess was the hillside outside of Gotham that looked like a tornado had passed over, tearing everything apart.

"It will recover," Superman promised.

* * *

><p>"Um, who are you talking to, Firestorm?" the Atom said at the feet of that hero. Said feet happened to be on the Justice League's conference table in the satellite a few days later. She was still annoyed at having to cut her video game short.<p>

"Uh, no one important, Atom," he replied while sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. In reality he had been talking to the other half of Firestorm.

Within the Firestorm Matrix Jason gave Ronnie an annoyed look. 'See, now we're going to be laughingstocks.'

"So where is everyone?" she asked.

"I dunno. I mean, isn't one of Superman's powers the ability to remember everything?" Firestorm asked.

"No, actually. That's my power. Hello, guys," Shelinaria said as she walked into the conference room from the Justice League's teleporters. At her side was the magician Zatanna in her trademark showgirl tuxedo.

"You guys made it, too?" the Atom said excitedly.

"Oh course. I see we are finally balancing the testosterone level here a bit," Zatanna said with a smile on her face.

"I'm... actually feeling pretty outnumbered. Hey, is there a kitchen here?" Firestorm asked as he stood up. "I'm hungry enough for two people."

'We are two people!'

"We shouldn't, but I guess it's not really a big issue," the Atom said with concern.

"Hey is it true that Aquaman eats aquatic life?" Firestorm asked. "So if I eat shrimp in front of him he won't introduce me to his trident?"

"Fish eat other fish all the time. Remember sharks?" Shelinaria replied with raised eyebrows. That was a very inane question. Though she realized what Firestorm intended was to avoid offending Aquaman.

"Oh, right."

* * *

><p>Down in the Batcave, the rest of the Justice League were just discovering that Batman's ring of Kryptonite had been stolen.<p>

Cyborg was scanning the scene of the crime with his sensors while he read the computers. "Our intruder was 180 lbs., so was likely human."

Superman nodded, tabulating that as just another fact. Wonder Woman was at his side, listening intently. Aquaman was brushing off some of the brackish cave water after his quick trip to verify that they had not been used for the intrusion.

Alfred was walking up with a tray that had a teapot and several cups. "Some tea, Master Todd?"

The red masked hero nodded. "Certainly, Alfred. I guess you are tougher than I thought."

"There are perks with having guests. I daresay I haven't felt this good in years," the old butler said.

Shelinaria suppressed a laugh. "Happy to help, Alfred. Zola appreciates your assistance at times. Alfred, how often do you go into the hidden room there?"

"Once a month, ma'am," he replied adroitly.

"I'm pretty sure that him being kicked through a glass tube means he's not a suspect," Red Hood said in a tight, angry tone.

"And he doesn't weigh that much either," Cyborg said even as Batman just narrowed his eyes at his side.

"All true. But an Alfred Pennyworth that has a slightly less refined diet, wearing a myomer muscle suit does appear to have walked in there only an hour ago-" Shelinaria explained as she looked at them with glowing sea-green eyes, then looked away.

All of them stared at her in a bit of surprise.

"A clone? No, Cyborg's genetic analyzer would have spotted that. So some other form of duplicate-"

"We'll have to deal with that later. The satellite is under attack by Despero. I could use the back up," she suddenly interrupted.

Red Hood looked at her in confusion. This was weirder than what he dealt with in his life and he worked with an alien princess.

"Teleporters are down," Cyborg said as he checked his systems.

"I'm heading out," Superman said, then disappeared in a zoom of red and blue.

* * *

><p>Bedlam had erupted as the new Justice League members were being attacked with lethal malice. Metal, armored walls were being smashed and shredded.<p>

"Despero faced off against the entire League and Martian Manhunter," the Atom complained.

"Hey guys, I brought milk shakes!" Element Woman called out as she materialized on the teleporter pad even as it was shutting down.

The giant maroon, three-eyed alien was smashing through walls as he punched Sheilnaria through a metal wall. "You are not Superman!"

"No duh," Shelinaria shouted right back at the psychotic alien. The right side of her face was starting to swell and her eye was almost closed from the damage.

"Sdnim ruo dliehs!" Zatanna shouted out quickly.

"What's going on? You guys are messing things up!" the multi-colored woman called out. One of her bags of fast food ripped and splatted on the ground.

"Busy! Evil warlord trying to kill us," the goddess of battle shouted out, barely ducking under a blow from Despero. She was now shielding all of her thoughts from her mind so Despero was no longer able to read her moves and counter before she could dodge.

"Titanium is the strongest metal I know. And he keeps ripping it apart like tinfoil," Firestorm complained. And Despero kept coming!

"Alloys are stronger," the young demigoddess called out. She lashed out with a lightning bolt that just scorched his shoulder.

"That actually hurt me!" the despotic super villain shouted out in surprise. "I'll make you feel that pain a hundred-fold!"

"I was not holding back on that," the goddess noted. Most people would be ash in the wind and it annoys the alien. Great.

"Titanium steel? Right, I'll try that!" Firestorm said to someone. He transformed the air into heavy metal bands. These actually started to slow Despero down slightly as he had to work to bend the metal.

"Zatanna! Atom! The space station is de-orbiting! I'm going outside to try and do something about it!" Shelinaria shouted out and then leaped out the massive hole in the space station that was leaking fire and smoke.

"Tuo og erif!" the magician said, putting out the blazes at least. "Elemental Girl, turn into something heavy and just hit Despero as hard as possible!"

"I think I can do that," the slightly addled heroine said as her fists turned into dull gray heavy bludgeons and started to hammer home on Despero's face.

"You think your witch's magic can protect your mind? It's just slowing me down! You aren't the Justice League! Bring me Superman! Wonder Woman! Green Lantern! I'll break them and make them beg for the release of death!" Despero's eyes were glowing brightly, but he was not yet able to break through.

"Hey, we're the new guys!" Firestorm called out. "Plus the Green Lantern hasn't been on the team in months!"

Outside the space station, the teen goddess was putting her back into the armored bulkhead in the middle of blinding smoke and choking fires.

But it was still atmosphere, so she could fly.

Something had managed to build up a tight trajectory and they were headed towards the East Coast. There was too much momentum, too much mass to stop. But that was the brute force method. Even though she was exerting thousands of tons of force, she was accelerating the Justice League's tower to skim right over the atmosphere.

"What are you doing?" Superman shouted as he came up to her in the inky stream of smoke.

"Corrective trajectory to get this back into a stable orbit. Despero has a ring with a glowing green stone which is green kryptonite. So let me go back in first."

The metal creaked under their combined force had them skimming over the Earth as the nearly nonexistent atmosphere hit the metal hard and hot enough to turn to plasma. And finally the Earth was falling away behind them.

Shelinaria disappeared in a burst of speed, appearing back at the fight as Element Woman was rushing back into battle, swinging her heavy metal fists to little effect. On the ground lay two teens as Zatanna tried to force close Despero's third eye with her magic.

"Hey, Despero! I'm back!" Shelinaria shouted as she appeared with a sword in her hand, stabbing deep into the alien despot's back.

He spun around, his massive maroon fist swishing above her head, her hand flickering in unbelievable speed. "You're secrets will be mine!" He frowned in frustration. "You're mind is not human!" Too many minds, but all perfectly still her. One entity, but thirteen mentalities.

"Duh! Goddess here!" She then tossed something small, green and glowing at Element Woman. "Protect that in lead! Superman! Now!"

Despero actually looked down at his ring to see the little band of metal missing its gemstone. "I'll melt your brains! When I'm done not even you will remember where you came from!"

Superman's fist shook Despero's jaw, rattling his teeth. "That's enough. You are going down!"

The teleporters came back online, revealing the rest of the Justice League, minus the Flash. Wonder Woman led the charge with her sword, Aquaman on her left wielding his trident with Cyborg on her right, sonic cannon at the ready. Batman disappeared into a shadow, carefully watching for what everyone was doing.

"That good enough for you?" Zatanna asked Desparo with a cocky grin on her face. "Niap htiw sgof dnim S'Oerpsed!"

Despero's face had two fists hit both sides, even as Wonder Woman put her full weight on her magical sword into his ribs. Aquaman stabbed down upon his back with his trident, eliciting another scream of pain.

"Impossible! You were not this powerful before!" their enemy shouted into their faces.

"We have new, strong allies," Aquaman declared a bit smugly.

Shelinaria imbued her sword with terrible, inimical energy and then slammed the sword across Despero's face, bisecting his third eye.

Superman then slammed a double-fist punch down upon his head, finally knocking Despero out.

"Wake up," Batman ordered the two teens that he was waving smelling salts under their noses. "We need Firestorm to fix the walls."

They shared a quick glance, then reformed into Firestorm, setting to work at making crude patches out of available materials.

The Atom surged back to full size. "Man, I was just about useless except as momentary distractions. I'm not sure that I'm cut out for this business."

Aquaman put his hand on her shoulder. "You'll do fine. One hero can't do everything. That's why we're a team."

Shelinaria wondered what Ray Palmer was up to as she listened to Aquaman lie. They might need him to battle this Atom sooner than later. If he even existed. This might be his 'rewritten' version in this reality.

And that reminded her to figure what version if any this reality's Hawkman was.

"We need to secure Despero and check things out," Batman ordered.

All they found was more mysteries that did not make sense. What would anyone want with a microscopic sliver of kryptonite?

The only thing that Shelinaria could think of (and did not mention) is that the Atom would implant it inside Superman with her shrinking powers. She needed to go over those medical files of Superman and figure out where the worst place it could be put.

And plan a counter.

* * *

><p>The Justice League Satellite was almost in working operation again. Even as she lived different lives (including a very secret one that no one else knew of in Gotham) Shelinaria was helping to secure their base.<p>

"The Justice League," she muttered to herself. "And here I thought I was going to be without a home or team." She smiled to herself as Clara gurgled happily as she ate her lunch. Christopher was visiting Clark Kent's apartment as his 'younger cousin' while Diane (the young half-Kryptonian baby) was being tended by Zola.

The newly reactivated computers and monitors suddenly pulled up an alert. All of the League showed that there response would be at least five minutes, if not longer.

"I've got it," Shelinaria stated across the communication systems. She narrowed her glowing blue-green eyes in thought.

The teleporters deposited her right in the middle of Washington D.C. where three men in low grade powersuits were wreaking havoc during a protest.

"There's the harlot of sin!" a man shouted as she appeared, ignoring the blue armor over loose jumpsuits that was blasting a car not twenty feet from him. "The girl who claims to be a goddess!"

"Pardon me, lives to save," she called out as she zipped over to the first villain and ripped the harness off his back. Her off hand threw a diamond shaped throwing knife that ripped through the backpack on a second one. That left just the flying one. "Ready to surrender?"

"Eat plasma, bitch!" the goon in an Intergang enforcer suit shouted as he shot blue beams of energy at her and the crowd behind her. He just smiled as she moved to intercept the hit that could melt an Abrams M1-A6 tank. "Da hell?"

"I've been working out a bit, so I'm a bit stronger and tougher than I look," she explained even as she zipped behind him to rip off the last backpack. "And that's that-"

Her monologue was interrupted as a depleted uranium .50 caliber slug hit her head, knocking her spinning.

"Head shot, but she's still moving. Giganta, move in and finish her off," Deathstroke the Terminator called out over his teams communicator.

"She's not even moving. Too easy," the giant woman boasted as she grew to her full one hundred feet in height. He picked up the armored goddess, preparing to crush her when she slipped out of her hands as lithely as any super-soldier. "What!?"

"Just needed to heal up the head wound. Sorry, have someone else far more important to defeat than you, Giganta," Shelinaria said as she glared in hate at Deathstroke. In a blur, she appeared next to him.

He was already smoothly slipping out a sword and blocking an attack from behind. "Let me guess, I killed someone close to you, like your parents?" he said in a cold snide humor.

"The Deathstroke I knew drugged his daughter, brainwashed her and turned her into an assassin. From what I've learned, you did that here too. So I'm going to break you into very small, little living pieces that is going to suffer in agony for the rest of your life. A very, very long life," Shelinaria explained in a cold, harsh tone.

"Well that's a new threat," Deathstroke remarked nonchalantly.

Her fist lashed out in what appeared to be a punch, Deathstroke's sword swiping up to deflect it, only for her small armored hand to catch it and the shatter it like cheap sugar candy.

"I liked that sword," he replied as he flipped backwards to avoid a kick at his head. His flippant tone hiding his worry. Much like his former team mate Cash Cole aka Grifter would have done in this sort of situation.

"I've got her," Copperhead shouted as he looped about the new Justice Leaguer. "I can crush steel. You're in trouble!"

Shelinaria just answered by putting the palm of her hand on one of the coils holding her and channeled a lightning bolt into him. He landed on the rooftop with a scream, smoke trailing out of his mouth. "Keeping me is a harder problem."

Deathstroke rushed back in, firing two uzi's full clip into her face. He thinks he has annoyed her. Enough for her to grab both guns and shatter them and his right hand in one super-fast blur. "Huh, you really do hate me, don't you?" he gasped out in pain. He hated speedsters.

She was just opening her mouth when Blockbuster landed on her head from the building next door and blasted her six floors down into the building.

"Not so big now, huh?" the brutish Blockbuster said with a grin as he wiped the small dab of her blood from his his knuckle.

"I'm just the right size," she replied as she kicked him in the nuts hard enough to cave in tank armor.

His eyes crossed comically as she flipped him off of her and flipped to her feet. The shadows behind her suddenly speared through her armor like it didn't exist, cutting her.

Shadow Thief looked at Shelinaria with pity as she leaned over her shoulder. "If only you weren't working with that alien and his followers, we could have kept all the aliens off this planet."

"That's quite the xenophobic attitude to have," Shelinaria remarked. "Personal experience or just speciesism? Besides, I'm from another alternate universe. I'm just as alien as anyone else."

"Bad choice, 'goddess'. Man, and I thought some villains had delusions," she said in a mocking voice with a wide smile on her face. "In the darkness, I rule supreme!"

"That just means we need some light," Shelinaria replied as bright white electricity crackled over her body even as she back-headbutted the surprised shadow being. Her nose smashed flat with a thundering boom and Shadow Thief smashed through three walls. Shelinaria then leaped back up through the hole to land on the roof. "Oh? You didn't run away, Deathstroke."

"I've been paid to kill you. And I always make my mark." And he was thinking that he had not been paid nearly enough for this job. He readied his energy blade in his unbroken hand.

A large shadow sudden filled the rooftop as Giganta tried to punch the annoying girl in armor. She was as effective as most people are of slapping flies in the air.

"I'll be right back so you can keep trying to kill me, Slade," Shelinaria said, then ran along Giganta's outstretched arm.

Giganta only had a moment to react before the goddess landed a thunder enhanced punch to her jaw. Then her nose. And finally the jaw again, sending the one hundred foot tall giantess spinning through the air in six spins to land face first in an open field of a park.

Deathstroke had started running at the first punch. He'd come back later with much bigger, nastier weapons. He actually made it a block and into the sewers before she caught up to him.

"Are you ready, Deathstroke?" she asked, her blue-green eyes blazing in the dark under his sunlight hair.

He dropped two smoke grenades and a flash bang as he kept running. The sewers filled with smoke and strobing bangs and flashes. He felt something grab his harness and then smashed his body into the end of the tunnel that had been a hundred feet away. He was actually conscious thanks to the Nth metal in his armor, so that just meant he could struggle and stab her with his knife three times as she smashed him three more time into the walls with enough force to cave them in.

"So someone decided I needed to die, hmm?" the battered goddess asked as she started to heal her wounds.

And far off in the Secret Society's mansion lair, the Outsider watched the last moment with cold, calculating eyes on monitors. "Yes, we did. It appears we need to try harder. Don't you think so, dear?"

The Atom nodded from the other side of his oak desk. "She took on four heavy hitters like one of the real Justice League dweebs. Should I just plant a bomb in her head and pop her?"

"It would leave a distinctive trace, as you well know. And they would twig onto your duplicitous position in both teams. And we are nearing the end game as all the pieces are in place. Pandora has found her box and believes it needs to be opened." The Outsider just smiled at that.

"And all while A.R.G.U.S. and all those other losers have no idea they were watching the wrong people," the young, female Atom said with a smirk.

* * *

><p>Captain Marvel stood in the desert, looking at the canopic jar with the remains of Black Adam in his hands. Even villains deserved to be buried in their homelands.<p>

Then bullets started to hit him, startling him greatly.

"Hey! Stop that!" Captain Marvel shouted out. "Stop shooting at me!"

If anything, that spurred them on to shooting him more. And that gunfire shattered the clay jar that carried Black Adam's ashes.

"NO!" he shouted. Captain Marvel felt an anger that was as fierce as anything before. He charged forward to attack the soldiers of protecting their homeland, Khandaq.

The blur of blue and red that interrupted his attack smashed him high into the sky, only to crash into the desert sands. The supernatural master of magic got to his knees, anger making the lightning crackled from his eyes.

"Who's asking for a fight?" Captain Marvel demanded.

Superman grabbed him by his white and gold cape. "No one wants one," he replied.

The young hero lashed out with a lightning and magically enhanced punch. "Then you shouldn't have started it!"

Captain Marvel blinked as he realized that he just punched Superman. "Superman? I just knocked down Superman?"

Before he could repeat that, he was interrupted by Wonder Woman showing up and Superman slamming into him, flying across the ground.

"What are you doing in Kahndaq?" the demigoddess Amazon called out.

"I'd answer the the lady," Superman said as he controlled the flight.

"Or what? You'll hit me some more?" Captain Marvel replied snidely. He then punched Superman to knock him back twenty feet. "You aren't-"

Another blur appeared, cutting him off with the appearance of Shelinaria in her armored superhero outfit. "You've illegally crossed national borders, were about to assault soldiers, and punched Superman," Shelinaria noted aloud. "Do you even have the Wisdom of Solomon?"

The rest of the Justice League had finally caught up. Flash, Aquaman, Batman, Elemental Woman, the Atom, Cyborg, Firestorm and Zatanna all stood behind Superman and Wonder Woman.

"The what? They started it! I was just bringing the ashes of Black Adam to be interred here in his homeland!" the youngest hero shouted back at them as he rubbed his stinging jaw. He then pointed his finger at Superman. "And he's the one that punched me first!"

Shelinaria frowned at that. Why had Superman started by punching Captain Marvel?

"This is a real mess," the Atom lied with perfectly fake remorse.

"He's kind of cute," the Element Woman said inanely. "Who is he?"

Zatanna had her eyes narrowed at him. "Why does his magic feel familiar? Like something I've seen before?"

"That doesn't matter here and now, because the Justice League of America is here to escort you all out of Kahndaq," a new voice stated.

And only thirty feet away stood another team of colorful heroes. A new Green Lantern, the Martian Manhunter, Catwoman, Hawkman, Vibe, Katana, Stargirl, Green Arrow, the new hero Doctor Light and the Olympian. At their front stood a soldier in very high tech armor, Steve Trevor with pistols at the ready.

"That's what we came to do," Wonder Woman staring at her ex-boyfriend in surprise.

Steve explained about Kahndaq thinking they were being invaded. Captain Marvel again angrily denounced them and Superman because they attacked him!

"We all need to stop this! Please!" Doctor Light called out.

"Stand your ground, Doctor Light!" Trevor ordered harshly.

The scientist tried to get them all to agree that they wanted the same thing, a peaceful resolution to the fight. As he was talking, Shelinaria was looking around. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted soldiers and reporters hiding in the nearby ruins. Why were they there?

"Aaaaah!"

"Doctor Light?" Trevor shouted in worry as the metahuman started glowing as bright as spotlights.

"Superman... He's a solar battery. I c-can't-" Doctor Light cried out, losing control of his powers. He blasted the first thing in front of him, which happened to be at Batman.

Only the blink in reality as Shelinaria appearing in front of him saved the dark knight from being seriously injured.

Batman shot Steve Trevor a look that screamed, 'Can A.R.G.U.S. ever do anything right?'

"Batman!" Superman had shot forward in a blur of super-speed, grabbing Doctor Light to put himself in the way as his normally invulnerable self to protect the other. "Stay away from my friends!"

Doctor Light tried to apologize.

"Superman!" Shelinaria started to shout out in warning.

The Man of Steel started to look away, so his heat vision only burned the side of Doctor Light's head. He was dying, the flicker of his life force fading away. Then he felt something saving him even as he fell to the ground.

"No, I didn't mean to do that!" Superman shouted, worried that he had killed the black and white garbed hero. "What have I done?" His tone was horrified even as the Justice League of America surged into battle against the original Justice League. Superman was rushed by the Martian Manhunter and the new Green Lantern.

Batman attacked Steve Trevor with a harsh scowl even for him. They would have words about this after they finished subduing his team. The Olympian surged forward to attack Shelinaria, Katana rushing Wonderwoman, Hawkman yelling in fury as he swung at Aquaman, Stargirl starting to move against Cyborg and Catwoman headed to help Trevor with Batman.

It had instantly had become a massive superhero brawl. And in the middle of it, the Atom cried out for people to stop in feigned horror.

In the middle of this stood Superman, holding his hand over his eyes.

"Superman can't have nearly burned Doctor Light to death," Stargirl said to Catwoman.

"It sure looked like it!" the thief turned heroine stated even as she readied herself to dive back into the fight.

"Green Lantern! Medical evac for Doctor Light! And someone keep Zatanna's mouth shut!" Trevor shouted out even as he fired at the dodging form of Batman. His guns then turned to charcoal due to Firestorm.

As Element Girl was fighting Vibe, Batman that was trying to subdue Catwoman without hurting her, but with that maniac Hawkman swinging that mace everywhere that was harder than it looked.

"Selina," Batman growled aloud angrily. "Drop it. This isn't the place for you."

"Don't you know a cat goes where it wants?" she shot right back at him in a sarcastic tone.

"I've betrayed the Justice League and nearly got someone killed!" the Atom decried of herself. "I shouldn't have agreed with Waller!"

The Olympian was trying to tag the smaller, faster goddess in front of him. "I have the power of all of the Argonauts. Including Hercules!" he boasted.

"Yet you are not my uncle," she retorted. This was too confusing of a situation to try and take out the Atom before she could try and kill someone else. Her foot kicked out, taking out the Olympian's left ankle from under him and twisted into a headlock. "He wouldn't have fallen for such a basic wrestling move."

"Did someone poison your mind?" the Martian Manhunter demanded of the staggering Superman. His fingers were phased into Superman's head, allowing greater contact with his telepathy.

The Flash was suddenly there, vibrating his hand through the martian, staggering him from the unexpected attack through his heart.

"Stop!" The battle raged around him, becoming more vicious by the second. Superman had kept trying to stop the fight. Finally he resorted to hitting the ground hard enough to make an eighty foot wide crater. "Stop and lock me up!" he shouted angrily.

Everyone finally stopped as boulders landed around them.

"I'm a threat to those around me. I nearly killed a man!" Superman's voice was filled with anguish.

Wonder Woman landed next to him, putting her hand on his shoulder.

Finally it was decided that Superman would be brought in as a possible menace.

* * *

><p>Shelinaria weaved through two teams as everyone started to get sorted out at the A.R.G.U.S. medical center of the headquarters. Superman was starting to be led off as she finally walked besides Element Woman. She gave the strange woman a smile and then hit the Atom with a hard enough wounding effect of her healing powers. She caught the unconscious villain before she could hit the ground.<p>

"Superman! I caught the traitor to both of our teams! And I think she was behind your loss of control!" the young goddess called out.

"Bullshit," Green Arrow shouted. "You let her go this instant!"

Superman was looking a bit pale, but notably perked up at this news. "What?" He stopped to listen.

At his side, the lead executive of A.R.G.U.S. looked fit to be tied. "You had better explain what you mean by that," Waller demanded as she pointed a finger.

"Of course. Atom was behind the attack on Cyborg's secure data servers, but did not give you those files. And she can actually go into computers. I couldn't follow her everywhere, but I did see her tele-mechanically controlling her computer to play a game."

"There is no way you could hack A.R.G.U.S.'s data to prove that," Waller retorted.

"No, your dead tree approach to security would stop that. It was really annoying to read all those folders manually. I'm a little insulted you thought a hero using one relic would actually equal a goddess," Shelinaria said. "So I know she didn't give you those files she stole when she set Platinum to go rogue. She was on Superman just before he rushed up to Doctor Light and lost control. And now Superman is exhibiting signs of kryptonite poisoning." She actually stared at Superman harder, trying to find the source of the poisoning. There was literally not enough radiation around to cause the amount of pain and weakness. There was only-

"How did she do that?" Batman demanded as he stared at the knocked out villain.

"She jabbed a visual control cluster of nerves in his head with a microscopic shard of green kryptonite. So she's working with the one that sent Despero to trash the satellite." That was hard even with her impossibly fine senses.

"We're going to need to scan Superman's brain to confirm that. But if that is the case, who is she working for?" Trevor asked as he nodded to Superman.

"The Secret Society, duh," Catwoman called out snidely. "I mean they already tried to kill us before."

"Which leads me to wonder if we were the only thing you were looking at," Batman growled. "Or is N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s actions among others too hard for you to look into?"

"Focus, Batman. We need to deal with the enemy that is attacking us now," Wonder Woman said as she put her hand on his shoulder.

Firestorm looked impressed at that. She actually talked down the intimidating hero.

"I'm confused. I liked her, but she was the enemy?" Element Woman asked.

"I will get to the bottom of this. Her small thoughts might have hidden herself from me, but I know how to get around that-" Martian Manhunter was saying when yellow circles of light appeared throughout the room.

Each one sprouted grenades, sending the Flash into a blur of motion to get them away from the merely human members of both teams. Shelinaria deflected one towards Captain Marvel and then held a second to stomach as she crouched low.

The Green Lantern, Simon Baz, put up an emerald bubble around several of the grenades. It wasn't fancy but it would get the job done.

As the grenades were going off another portal opened right next to the young goddess's left hand that was holding the Atom. Two hands reached through, one with a glove that gripped her forearm and unleashed a nerve disruptor while the second one grabbed the unconscious villainess from suddenly limp fingers.

Shelinaria's other hand shot into the warp to grab the Atom. The portal closing on her arm and amputating it came as a great shock. "My gauntlet! That took weeks to make!" she stated inanely.

Firestorm stared at the stump Shelinaria had. "I think I might be sick…"

"Ewww…" Element Girl put it.

The young goddess frowned at the stump as she focused on it hard. "I'm a lot tougher than when I first came to this world." Black, all-color ichor spurted out from the stump and then reformed into her forearm and hand. She clenched it and then wiggled all the fingers to make sure they all worked.

"We just lost our prisoner to interrogate, so now we are back to square one," Amanda Waller complained.

"And with their freaky mansion that can teleport anywhere, it's not like we can just track them down on a whim," Catwoman said in complaint as she relaxed and leaned up against the metal walls of the infirmary. Zatanna wondered how many buildings able to teleport she was to find out about as that was the third one so far.

Batman's eyes narrowed in sudden thought. "Did you get an ID on all of them?"

"Just the ones we caught. Their leader was this old guy that was way too smug and British," the thief-heroine said with a distasteful sniff.

"Martian Manhunter, I need to see who that is. Now," the sleuth demanded.

"That is easy, as he was the one that shot me in the head." He suddenly shapeshifted into a pale, evil looking Alfred Pennyworth.

"Our kryptonite thief. So this is an attack by the Secret Society," Cyborg said as he looked at the face.

"Who is he?" Green Arrow asked.

"An impossibility," Batman said intently. "A mysterious, evil duplicate or clone. From the future? Or some other universe? We don't know."

Shelinaria looked around. She walked past Hawkman on her way to the badly maimed man in the corner. Hawkman grunted as he felt all of his scars and wounds suddenly heal. "Please, let me help Doctor Light," she asked.

The doctors looked upset. "What can you do?"

"I can help." She placed her hand on his burned side, then suddenly it regrew itself back. A long moment of concentration and even his hair grew back.

Doctor Light opened his eyes with a gasp. "I thought I was going to die."

"You almost did, in an attempt to frame Superman for murder."

That got the dark skinned scientist to gape in shock. "Really?"

* * *

><p>The Outsider frowned as he awaited for the Atom to awaken as she laid on his desk like a small doll. She looked like she had been beaten severely, all purple bruises on her face. "It appears we will have to go with Plan D."<p>

Deathstroke narrowed his eye behind his mask. "And what is that?" He was standing on the other side of the desk, studying the leader of the Secret Society. He had been sprung in record time and healed up. Along with the other members of the Secret Society.

"I want you to contact the Rogues and hire them. You are going to be looking for a woman who is carrying an item of incredible power. Her name is Pandora and she hold Pandora's box that she wishes to use to contain evil." The Outsider's face had a wide, evil grin on it all of a sudden. "And Deathstroke? I want the heroes to know about it."

"Why?" the mercenary demanded. He hated these types of damn operations.

"Because I want them to believe that it can defeat them. Oh, don't worry your head. It's incredibly dangerous... to them. That's why I want them to try and stop you. They won't be able to stop themselves from fighting over it. After all, it leads to evil."

"I want to be paid up front. Ten million dollars," Deathstroke demanded.

"Gold, diamonds or a Swiss account?"

"Diamonds, clean and clear." Deathstroke nodded as he showed how serious he was about this mission.

The Outsider didn't even quibble a little bit. "I'll get Warp to drop you off in Central City and he'll deliver clues to help track down this woman." He opened a drawer and pulled out several bags of diamonds, handing them to the mercenary. "I would be wary of Shelinaria, she doesn't seem to like you much."

"I want to know why, but I need the right weapon. Something that will cripple her magic," Slade stated with a hard look on his face.

The Outsider laughed uncontrollably for a moment before regaining control of himself. "Of course you do. Your ten million might even cover costs."

"All business then." Deathstroke pondered it. "Find it for me and I'll take care of buying it."

* * *

><p>Constantine was lighting up a cigarette. "So we need to-." He was suddenly looking behind the rest of the Justice League Dark. "Bullocks. Bloody hell. Why do people keep interrupting-"<p>

"Constantine, I need your help. You and your Justice League Dark," a cloaked up woman said. "I am hunted by evil. And they must not succeed."

"Pandora," Deadman said as he narrowed his eyes. The scarlet garbed ghost did not look happy.

All of them could feel something from the three eyed gold skull in her hands. Something... evil.

Adam, the Frankenstein monster, had pulled out his large sword from his back. His green skin and stitching made him look like a super-muscular version of the classic horror monster. "We should-"

"Just die?" Deathstroke the Terminator said even as he fired a pistol while he rounded the corner of a house. "Kill them all, but we need her... and the box." He landed in a forward roll, pulling out a broadsword and charging at Constantine.

"Not the smartest bloke at the pub, are you?" the mage said as he took a drag on his cigarette. "Trying to mess with me right in front of my own house."

"Come on, guys! Time to tussle with the B-rate horror Justice League," Mirror Master said as he stepped out of the windows of the house.

Captain Cold fired ice out of his hands at Black Orchid to freeze her in a block of ice. His smile dipped as she flexed and actually broke the ice. "Super strength. Well, that's easier to deal with than ludicrous speed."

Heatwave sent out a blast of fire and heat at the whole group, causing the JL Dark to scatter.

Trickster bounded along on his pogo legs. "Time to have a blast!" he shouted as he threw little cherry bombs that popped and banged in a very disorienting way. He started to laugh hysterically at his own joke.

Constantine puffed out a cloud from his cigarette, snuffing the fire from Heatwave's attack. "Really damn stupid. Let's show this idiots the road."

Pandora had a pistol out, shooting over at the Weather Wizard before he disappeared into a fog. "You will not take the Pandora Box from me."

"Love, it's what we do," Mirror Master said. "We're thieves. But don't worry, we won't hurt you too bad." He ducked through a puddle that was reflecting the sky, disappearing before he could be seriously hurt or killed. He hated to do that, as the Mirror World was seriously messed up. Or was it himself that was broken, he wondered?

Adam had charged towards Heatwave, swinging his sword even as it started to glow red hot from a new blast of fire and heat. "We are the darkness that hunts evil, thieves."

The clang of a sword hitting sword surprised Adam as Deathstroke came out of the smoke and fog. "And mercenary killer. Can't forget that," he said, even as he kicked the Frankenstein monster in the jugular. "Would someone keep that woman from running? We can't let anyone else get a hold of that right now."

Lightning flashed to blast a tree to kindling.

"I'd hate to have to hurt you," the Weather Wizard said somberly. "But we need this job to fix us."

Pandora narrowed her eyes, her red painted chakra dot and jagged cheek marks making her look odd and exotic with her eternal white hair. She flipped over the puddle below as Mirror Master tried to grab her legs, shooting at him again.

Deathstroke then suddenly stopped fighting Adam and back-kicked Heatwave in the face. "Damn ghost! Get out of my head!"

Deadman struggled, but the mercenary was remarkably strong willed. And seemed to have some sort of ward written on paper under his costume. The former acrobat had no idea what to make of someone prepared for something like him. "What the hell, man?" he asked as he was forced out.

"Why would a ghost scare me when a goddess doesn't?" Deathstroke asked in a cold tone.

"Okay. That's a new one," the ghost noted as he flitted across the battlefield.

Black Orchid dodged into the fog even as hail started to clatter to the ground. It appeared this Weather Wizard was not too accurate with his powers yet. Once she was out of sight she started to morph her appearance. She staggered out of the fog, looking like Deathstroke as she held her hand over her 'wounded' stomach. "Trickster..."

Trickster blinked. "Whoa! Boss, what happened." He almost reacted fast enough to avoid the gut shot by the supernaturally strong female. Almost, but not quite. His breath was forcibly ejected and he curled over the blow to rob some of its force. Super strong hands clutched at his throat. He started triggering several of his 'trickster devices to try to get her off him. However it didn't do anything and Black Orchid's grip held.

Adam rose back up and walked through the flames that Heatwave was emitting. The villain got the hilt of Frankenstein's sword to the face.

"You all are fighting very hard for merely hope," Adam remarked.

"No, hope is not locked in this box," Pandora stated before opening fire on Captain Cold. "Nor will I let a mercenary and his hired thugs have it!"

"At least we're more honest than Constantine," Cold retorted. "Who knows what he'll do with that box."

Constantine gave the Captain a rude hand gesture.

Deathstroke stumbled at Heatwave blasted the ground in front of him to try and take out the mage for his temerity and attitude. "Watch it-" he started to shout, only to be cut off as several of Pandora's bullets hit his chest. The blood packets splattered perfectly. "Emergency recall," he pretended to gasp out.

All of the Rogues except the Trickster faded out. Axel tried to laugh nervously as the heroes seemed to loom over him, but the chokehold was making everything blurry. In his pocket, the Secret Society amulet sizzled and melted.

"Well, boyo, I think it's time to find out what you know about a certain box," Constantine said as he noted Pandora disappearing into the shadows. He tapped Black Orchid on her shoulder to let him breath.

"Do you think they'd trust me with anything? I just know its valuable!" the Central City villain said with a smirk as he rubbed his throat.

"He lies," Adam said in a deep rumbling voice.

"Everyone lies. This stinks of the shite," the English mage grumbled. He put his fingers on Trickster's forehead.

A shadowy demon burst out from the center of the forehead, trying to bite and claw at Constantine's face and neck. He got cut on his forehead as he fended it off, but Adam and Black Orchid caught it quickly. Between the two they crushed it in a spray of ectoplasm.

"A Lidnoinite demon?" Deadman said. "That's some fairly serious power."

"No finesse. Amateurs," Constantine sighed. They definitely didn't get Nick to help them with this. Necro won't use something like this. Even Faust would use something better.

And for some reason, that worried him. He hated dealing with non professionals. Mostly because even they didn't know what they were going to do next.

"I believe you turned his brain to mush," Black Orchid remarked as Trickster had a glazed over look in his eye and was drooling. She shook him gently.

"Not me, luv. That's all that demon's fault. That's why you don't let a demon into your head." He suddenly frowned. "Oh, that's sneaky. They put the lidnoinite demon there on purpose, so that he would scramble his oatmeal. Bastards."

"Doubt they even informed him of that," Adam commented. "How... typical."

"That box... it had a lot of magical power. Constantine, I think we need to know why those guys are after it. Let me step inside and try to find out," Deadman said, jumping in to posses the villain.

"Wait!" Constantine shouted, only to breath a sigh of relief as he jumped back out.

"Relax, Constantine. I'm no rookie. They really did mess him up good. We'd need to fix his noggin or find a telepath," the ghost said.

Black Orchid frowned. "I might actually know one. He's part of A.R.G.U.S., I think."

That was awfully lucky, in the mage's mind. Too lucky. But they were already attacked. "Doesn't matter, we should drop this idiot off-"

"No, I think we should check this out quick to make sure that we aren't going to have a powerful magic item unleashed in our backs," Black Orchid retorted. Their leader was far too obsessed on his personal problems and the ghosts of his past come to hurt him. And the team by extension.

They really needed to deal with the Cult of the Cold Flame. But at the determined expressions on the other three members of the Justice League Dark, Constantine just sighed. Bloody hell.

* * *

><p>"You are totally exonerated for the loss of control, Superman. But that doesn't excuse you for invading the sovereign territory of a country that doesn't want you and the Justice League in it," Amanda Waller said as she looked over at the recovering Kryptonian.<p>

It had taken a few hours to get things sorted out and the alien virus (and the incredibly small sliver of Kryptonite) cured. All of the heroes were asked to stay at readiness, just in case.

"Hey, I just wanted to take back someone's ashes," Captain Marvel said and then sighed. "I thought I'd be in and out, and not need to tell half the planet what I'm doing."

"Hold that thought for when we have more time. More trouble has shown up with the third team of the Justice League," Superman said.

"Another one?" Firestorm asked. "How many Justice League teams are there?"

"Only three," Shelinaria stated. "And this team was from before, cutting their ties with A.R.G.U.S. long before we all got betrayed by The Atom."

"Constantine! What the hell are you doing here?" Zatanna demanded angrily at the lead figure as they stood in front the assembled heroes and A.R.G.U.S. leadership.

Hawkman and Frankenstein's Monster sized each other up.

Vibe slowly backed away from the pair. "Not again," he whimpered.

"Is that any way to greet friends?" Constantine said with a smile on his face.

"Well given I never heard of you guys before… we're not friends" Green Arrow commented.

"He gets that from people he knows as well," Zatanna sighed.

"Wonderful," the new Green Lantern, Simon Baz, muttered.

"Why do you have the Trickster?" the Flash asked as he spotted one of his Rogues.

"We need the big green guy to look into his head," Green Arrow said in a strange way. It suddenly did not sound like the cocky bowman at all, even though it was the same voice saying the words.

"So you're Deadman," Shelinaria remarked as she narrowed her eyes. A heroic ghost that possesses people in his adventures.

"Yep," Deadman, aka Boston Brand, said with a grin and enjoying the feeling of being alive. And male.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Flash asked remembering how letting the Martian Manhunter onto the Justice League went.

"We were just attacked by a group of villains trying to steal Pandora's box. Knowing why-" Black Orchid was saying, only to be interrupted.

"-will allow us to be only one step behind, not a dozen," Constantine said, lighting up another cigarette.

"What did you do to his mind," the Martian Manhunter demanded as he started to feel the damaged villain in front of him.

"Not me. Someone stuck a demon in his head to nibble off my face," Constantine said with a shrug. "That trick gets kind of old after awhile."

"Someone please tell me he's joking," Captain Marvel called out to all three teams. Zatanna, Shelinaria, Wonder Woman, Katana and the Olympian all shook their heads. The rest of the Justice League Dark just smiled and chuckled at his naivety. "Oh, boy." That, to the young master of magic, was not a good sign at all.

Quite a few of the Justice Leaguers of all stripes looked a little green at that idea.

"You must be really new at this," Constantine said as he raised an eyebrow at the red and white garbed hero. And that felt like the powerful magic of the reclusive wizard, Shazam. Old coot finally bit the big one?

"His mind is chaotic, on a good day. But still, at the heart, human." Martian Manhunter put his hands on Trickster's head. "I can almost sense what he was told about Pandora's box. Yes, Deathstroke is explaining that an anonymous group wishes to procure the relic as it is believed to have a power that can destroy any mortal. Heatwave jokes, mentioning that Superman is mortal, right? Deathstroke just tells him to stop thinking too hard."

"Another attack on Superman? This is worrisome," Wonder Woman said. "Only two or three of us are effectively not mortal."

Batman actually looked disturbed at that. "You and Shelinaria? And Deadman. A ghost, a demigoddess and a goddess."

Diana refused to mention she had been asked to be a new god of War. And no one knew if Frankenstein's monster counted as on "mortal" or not. Even Adam himself would be hard pressed to answer that question as he had no idea what he or his former Bride were exactly.

Aquaman frowned and then stepped forward. "So we need to investigate this Secret Society from multiple angles."

That got a return nod from Catwoman, Hawkman, Green Arrow and the Martian Manhunter.

"So the rest of us need to find some golden apples?" jokes Green Arrow with a grin on his face, getting a weird look from the new Green Lantern.

"Well, we have done our good boyscout thing. Need to get back to grown up matters. I'll see you guys later. Coming, guys?" Constantine asked as he headed to the closet door.

"We should track down the box," Adam said seriously. "This is very dangerous. And not even you are immortal, Constantine."

"Oh, come on! The big heroes with underwear on the outside can handle this. We've got some important stuff we can't put off," the mage complained.

"Such as?" Shelinaria asked sharply.

"None of your godly business, tart," he shot back.

Most of the heroes bristled at the dismissive attitude. Which included Adam.

"So are you going tell us then?" Frankenstein's Monster asked in a quiet and dangerous tone.

"Not in front of the children," Constantine drawled out.

"Constantine, you'll always be a total jackass, won't you?" Zatanna asked, looking more than just a little annoyed.

"It's who I am!" he replied with a smile.

"No wonder no one wanted to invite these people," Green Arrow muttered.

Shelinaria tilted her head to look at the drooling Trickster. A featherlight touch of healing as he was on his way to recovery. Internally, she had to chuckle as he immediately pretended to be still drooling and unconscious. The young goddess was sure that Batman had noticed.

"I am going to go to Hephaestus and demand the truth," Wonder Woman decided. "He was the one that originally built it, after all."

Shelinaria zeroed in on that. "I should probably introduce myself to him, shouldn't I? I still can't believe Apollo became the new king of Olympus."

"The Greek gods are real?!" Firestorm gasped. "I mean, really real?"

Wonder Woman and Shelinaria just gave him an annoyed look at that pronouncement.

"What?" Firestorm said seeing that look. "I've been dealing with sci fi stuff. The magic stuff is brand new to me."

* * *

><p>Pandora ran, twisting magics behind her to confuse her trail. She had to find the pure one, that could hold the box without being corrupted by it like Superman was. She had really thought that he was the best, but he acted like he was just a normal person.<p>

Was there anyone who could open the box? Could the Justice League help her like she believed? And why were the villains after her? She didn't even want to know what her box would do to them.

"I think that's far enough, Pandora," a male voice said as he stepped out of the shadows in the forest ahead of her. Deathstroke the Terminator had his broadsword out already

"You seem to enjoy being shot. I can accommodate that," Pandora noted with her guns already out.

"Well, I didn't bring the B-list villain bunch this time. Giganta, keep a watch out from anyone that is going to interfere. I'm going to make her suffer," Deathstroke promise, playing up his part like he was in some action movie.

Cheetah then growled. Why were they after this stupid woman and her skull 'box'. It didn't look like any box she had seen. And given the themes many villains and heroes took it was very possibly she was just some nutcase taking the name Pandora and lugging around a box.

Pandora let loose with a barrage of gunfire on Parasite as he tried to grab her.

"Did someone call for a fast rescue?" a red and yellow lightning streak called out as it started to spin around the purple skinned monster, making a tornado.

Captain Marvel announced his presence by landing a double-fist to Giganta's chin. She actually lifted off the ground by fifty feet, smashing trees in her landing.

Superman entered the fight by slamming into Cheetah hard and sending both of them flying through a few trees of his own. "Cheetah is down," Superman announced as he stood back up.

A massive emerald ball plowed through anything it struck.

"You again," Deathstroke remarked as he dodged Hawkman's mace.

And found it was a feint as Katana attacked him from behind with the Soultaker. He just barely ducked in time.

"Hawkman!" Blockbuster yelled as he charged for the flying alien.

Hawkman ducked under a punch went for the the beefed up man's knees. He wasn't going to underestimate the strength of Blockbuster this time. Not that he had to, as Simon put an emerald bubble around Blockbuster's head. The giant of a man used up air at at an extreme rate trying to get rid the green obstruction.

Tar Pit then found himself getting cold very fast as Superman exhaled his icy breath on the psionically held together man.

Hyena tried to sneak up on Hawkman and found himself slashed by the massive claws that Hawkman had strapped over one hand, then knocked out by his large metal mace.

"Who's next?" Hawkman bellowed.

A massive brown hammer struck Hawkman upside the head. Clayface wondered if the loudmouth had any superpowers he could use.

The fight continued up the side of Mount Etna and closer to the ancient Temple of Hephaestus.

* * *

><p>Wonder Woman was stalking in the shadows of Hephaestus's forge in the god realms, loosening her lasso of truth in preparation to force him to tell them about his Pandora's box.<p>

'Exactly why are you about to assault a god in his own home?' Shelinaria asked telepathically, grabbing a hold of her forearm.

'I'm going to demand that he tell us about the box. We may be sometime allies, but after what I found my people did and he allowed-' Diana thought aloud in her own mind. She leaked the impression and image of the 'Amazonian' sons that worked and toiled in his forges.

'Assaulting him is an insult, especially when a small touch of flattery will get everything.' Shelinaria rolled her eyes. 'You can always attack and tie him up later.'

The Amazon frowned, but realized that the daughter of Athena might just have a point. She looped up her lasso and then stepped out. "Brother, I need a moment of your time."

Hephaestus looked up from his forge, putting aside his latest work. One of his powers would allow it to keep ready until he went back to it. "Diana. What brings you here?"

"Pandora's Box and a dimensionally lost relative. It is time for truths," Wonder Woman said.

"Hello, I am Shelinaria, goddess of Excellence and Battle. I am the scion of Athena from a far off and alternate Earth." The glowing haired goddess gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

"She's a virgin goddess," the Smith of the Gods noted with a nasty smile.

"And mighty Zeus was known to have many progeny. I was adopted to be raised as her implement of war against the Titans when they freed themselves," Shelinaria stated simply and flatly. She was not going to dredge up his own attack on Athena that created a child.

For a moment there was an odd look on Hephaestus's face. "That would have to be a very dire time."

"I was only one of several demigods that were gathered together. Two cousins, the son of Hel of the Aesir and the son of Susano-O. And we were only one band of demigods gathered. But that's my lost past. Let us speak of what is known as one of your great creations, the Box of Pandora."

The smith frowned. "What of it?"

"We have learned that some of the villains plan to use it to kill the mortal heroes," Wonder Woman said sharply. "And what it did to Superman when he held it..."

Hephaestus frowned. He thought deeply on the matter for a second. "I wish I could tell you of Pandora's Box, but I didn't actually make it. It just appeared at Zeus's temple. I tried to decipher it's secrets, but it was beyond me."

"It's older than the Dodekatheon?"

"And strange. Hera was unable to magically discern its power and its craftsmanship was beyond my own," he admitted.

"Times have changed though. Is it still totally beyond you? Or do you have a better idea of what it is?" Shelinaria asked curiously.

"What an odd thought." Hephaestus closed his eyes behind his goggles, thinking back. "Some of it could have been microscopic power conduits. So perhaps it was alien technology, not just magic."

"Still something that needs to be kept out of the hands of those that wish to do harm to others," Diana stated firmly.

"Well, it was nice meeting you uncle," Shelinaria said politely.

"Just glad you two were able to deal with that First Born idiot," Hephaestus said.

Shelinaria just snorted at that. "I'm not sure why anyone was worried about the first born child of Zeus's second marriage."

The smith frowned, then his eyes widened behind his goggles. "You're smarter than most of our siblings, aren't you?"

"Just a little bit."

Diana was thinking about it. "Ah, Metis."

"Exactly," Shelinaria noted.

"But she was born after even I, Ares's younger brother," the deformed, dwarfish god countered.

"She was obviously born within Zeus and raised by Metis." Shelinaria frowned in deep thought. Something never sounded correct of that story. She closed her glowing sea-sapphire eyes, reaching deep within her soul to impress herself on reality itself. She had all the clues, she just needed to intelligently put it all together.

"What are you doing?" Hephaestus demanded. This felt primordial, elemental in breadth and power. Something that had not trod the mortal world in aeons.

The young goddess felt more than a fifth of her energy pushed into the task as she drew upon an ultimate aspect of her intelligence. The ground rumbled and even the gods further up the mountain of Olympus felt something shake the foundations of the Universe.

The First Born narrowed his eyes in thought and anger in Olympus as he felt the power.

"We are fools," Shelinaria stated. "Athena came out ready to do war. Garbed and armed the moment she emerged from attacking him from inside.

"And what does this have to do with the issue at hand?" Diana asked.

"A thought that I had to examine while it was at hand. But Athena is older than the first born 'son', even if it was within Zeus. Raised by Metis who was swallowed whole and put aside for his own sister. It's all subjective and based on where you are looking from." She turned back to the smith. "Hephaestus, could Pandora's Box be used as a weapon to slay mortals?"

"I'm sure it could, but other than being used to trap the Seven Sins, I don't think we ever got it to do much. If you don't mind, I have my own wonders to create."

"Oh, right. Do you have any unbreakable bracers that don't limit a person's strength?" Shelinaria asked the older god.

"She's still wearing those?"

"They are needed to control my strength," Diana said in a stern tone.

"When you were a kid. You know, I bet your mother forgot you even had them on." The smith had turned to a cabinet and came back with two more bracers. "Here you go."

"I do not need to replace these," she argued.

"Diana, do you actually need them any more to control your strength? Why are you letting your past shackle your strength and make you weaker?" the blonde goddess asked. "Superman doesn't require manacles of weakness. Why should you?"

"I- I had not thought of it that way." Wonder Woman removed her old bracers and replaced them with the new ones that were slightly more fancy. "Will these block Darkseid's Omega Beams? And still summon my swords?"

"Of course." Hephaestus grinned at that.

Shelinaria frowned as she thought over the need to talk to Orion again. The New Gods of New Genesis did not really like her much. Of course they also were massive jerks that were driven to defeating Darkseid at the exclusion of any and all manners.

* * *

><p>"And now Pandora's Box is charged just enough from your selfish, evil actions," the Outsider, Alfred Pennyworth's evil doppelganger, stated as he held up the golder, three-eyed skull. "The plan is complete."<p>

A massive roar thundered as a glowing portal appeared. Figures stepped out, bizarre and twisted

"You know when one of them comes out dead it really cuts down how scary they are," John Constantine remarked as the Sea King hit the ground.

The 'dead' counterpart of Aquaman then gasped for breath before staggered back to his feet. Though he looked like he might have wished he were dead with how unsteady he was.

Behind him stepped out a warped copy of the Justice League. Batman looked at the one dressed like an owl and wondered if the Court of Owls had a stronger hold on that world.

There was a noticeable thuggishness about their Superman version with a U on his chest. The alternate Wonder Woman wore an all black outfit and carried a magical rope with thorns. Floating above her was a dead Firestorm. And finally a mostly identical analog of the Flash. The fake Atom popped in and landed in the palm of his hand at just six inches tall.

"Hey, babe! Ready to kick these cheap knock-offs down a peg or two hundreds?" Johnny Quick asked his girlfriend.

Behind all of the twisted villains was a tied up man with a bag over his head.

"Yeah, especially that bitch that almost ruined everything, Johnny," she demanded as she pointed at Shelinaria.

"Crime Syndicate, take them down," Ultraman ordered.

Johnny Quick rushed forward in a blur to punch Shelinaria as fast and as hard as he could. So her gauntlet to his face was a rather large surprise as for a single minute fraction of a second, she matched his speed. He had hit her ten times already, but her three punches broke his nose and jaw.

To everyone (but the Flash) it was a blur that ended up with both of them flying backwards from each other.

Deathstorm hit them all with his power, locking away all of the Justice Leagues present into a dimensional prison with Firestorm power.

"Johnny!" Atomika shouted as she landed next to his head. "He's been hurt hard, but he's alive."

"It doesn't matter, they are all trapped. Now we can take over this world and remake it in our image. This is the new age of the Crime Syndicate," Ultraman proclaimed to everyone.

The burning sunshine appeared through the openings in Hephaestus's Temple. Ultraman put a hand up to block the sunlight.

"I forgot about the sun." In a blur, he took off back into the shadow and then to the Moon.

It was time for a permanent eclipse of his most hated foe.


End file.
